


You Saved Me

by fortunata13



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-08-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 55,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/786973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunata13/pseuds/fortunata13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which life without Cara sends Kahlan into a tailspin. Salvation comes in an unexpected package. I predict many surprises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Mother Confessor, come quickly,” said the stable boy, not realizing he was pulling at his Mistress’s arm.

"What is it?” Kahlan asked, following him out of the Palace.  
“Look,” he said, pointing at a basket that held a small bundle.

Kahlan knelt for a closer look, only to find a pair of bright blue eyes looking up at her. An infant, no more than three months old, had been left in the stables with a note in a language she did not recognize. Taking the child in her arms, Kahlan returned to the Palace calling for Richard.

“She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Kahlan tickled the baby’s belly, and cooed at her, earning herself a series of gurgling sounds in response to the attention. “She’s smiling at me,” Kahlan said, looking up at her husband.

“Actually, it’s more a smirk than a smile,” he said, allowing the baby to take hold of his finger. “She’s very strong,” he noted.

Richard took a look at the note but didn’t recognize the language either. “We’ll have to find her mother,” he said. A suggestion that, by the look on the Mother Confessor’s face, wasn’t at all welcomed. Still, she knew he was right. If the child had been taken against her mother’s will, she had to be returned to her –– although, Kahlan secretly hoped that wasn’t the case. From the moment she held her in her arms, every instinct in her told her the child was hers.

The last few years had been difficult ones for them. The war raged on for much longer than they’d expected. An entire generation of young soldiers lost in battle for nothing more than greed. It had been the barbarians from the north who, putting gold above human lives, attacked the Midlands. D’Hara and the Midlands were of one mind since Kahlan took Richard as her mate, but even their combined armies weren’t enough to put a swift end to the bloodshed.

For months, the Mother Confessor had been experiencing a deep melancholy that left her barely able to attend to her duties. It was her beautiful smile that her people missed most; for in the darkest of times, that smile had served as a beacon of hope that kept them going. It began on the eve of a jubilant celebration marking the end of the war when Richard informed her of the tragic news. Their closest friend and most valued General, the Mord’Sith Cara Mason, had been captured and executed. They were both devastated, but it was Kahlan who suffered her loss the most.

It had been almost a year since Kahlan and Cara had last seen each other. This was to be Cara’s last tour before returning to Aydindril; that is what they had agreed upon. Cara would remain at Kahlan’s side while Richard attended to his duties in D’Hara. He was to return to Aydindril as often as time allowed. Richard was well aware of the rumors of an affair between his wife and the Mord’Sith but he chose to ignore them. Addressing them would have cost him a wife and a friend, neither of which he was willing to lose.

It was Kahlan’s reaction to Cara’s death that confirmed the truth of their affair. His wife had loved Cara as much more than a friend, it was undeniable. It hurt him, of course, but he forgave Kahlan, and even Cara. The three of them had saved the world together, and now won a war. He and Kahlan could get through anything. He was certain of it.

This child who had come unexpectedly into her life was the single ray of light that got the Mother Confessor through the darkest period of her life. She poured every bit of herself into the little girl, loving her as much as she would have a child of her own. When the news arrived that Berdine, one of Richard’s Mord’Sith, and by many regarded as the most respected scholar in all of the territories, had translated the note, Kahlan held her breath, and prayed to the Creator.

The note, which had been directed to the Mother Confessor, contained exactly five words, “Love her. She is yours.” Since Richard’s efforts at finding the child’s family had come to nothing, they decided to adopt the little girl and raise her as their own. After much consideration, the child was named after their fallen friend. Carina Mason Rahl Amnell was their daughter, and the light in Kahlan’s eyes. The Mother Confessor’s smile was restored and her people rejoiced. All of Aydindril thanked the Creator for delivering this miraculous child to their Queen.

Shortly after Carina’s first birthday, Kahlan informed her husband she was with child. It was the happiest day of the Seeker’s life, and the second happiest of Kahlan’s. Even this could not exceed the joy she felt when it was decided that Carina was hers. Kahlan had known as much from the first time she held her in her arms, but making it official had only deepened their bond.

A second daughter was born to them seven months later. It was agreed that she’d be called Sophie Rahl Amnell. She was a tiny thing, born with a shock of black hair, and her mother’s eyes. That she had Richard’s smile and amiable disposition was obvious to everyone. One remark they often heard when they were out with the girls was that they both had Kahlan’s eyes. She and Richard had never given it much thought but they agreed that it was true.

Carina adored her baby sister, rarely leaving her side. She even insisted on helping her mother care for Sophie. While Kahlan thought her too small for the task, Carina, as stubborn a child as ever there’d been one, would not be deterred. She picked out her sister’s outfits, and screamed for her mother the moment the baby cried.

“She would have made an excellent Mord’Sith,” Richard often joked, noticing the way their eldest glared at anyone who dared approach her little sister or her mother. It was her pouty lips and blonde hair that reminded her mother of one Mord’Sith in particular, the one with whom she had fallen in love. Whenever she found herself plagued with memories of Cara, she held Carina in her arms. It was the only thing that consoled her.

While the political instability in D’Hara kept Richard away more than Kahlan would have liked, she and the girls were happy. Dennee visited often, relieving Kahlan of her duties so that she could take her daughters on short holidays, and from time to time she and Zedd traveled with the girls to D’Hara so that they could spend time with their father.

It was on the day of Carina’s third birthday that everything changed. Unable to make the trip from D’Hara, Richard had one of his men deliver the gifts for his eldest daughter, promising via journey book that he would see her soon.

When the D’Haran soldier arrived carrying a pack filled with gifts for the children and their mother, Carina eyed him suspiciously. Kahlan shook her head and laughed, as she always did when her overprotective daughter gave strangers that look. Only on this day, when the D’Haran soldier knelt down in front of Sophie handing her a neatly-wrapped package with her name written on it, she began to cry. When he reached out his hand to comfort her, Carina’s hand, out of an instinct that should not have been hers, reached for his throat. Kahlan watched in horror as her three-year-old’s eyes changed into swirls of black. “Command me, Mistress,” he said, as Carina ran into her mother’s arms.

“Tell the nice man to sit quietly, baby,” Kahlan said to her daughter in as gentle a tone as she could manage given the circumstances. With Sophie on her hip, and holding Carina’s hand, she rushed to the Wizard’s Keep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this installment Kahlan and Richard are in for some big surprises regarding their eldest daughter. This will lead to some major life changes, and some heartache for Richard.

“Carina confessed a D’Haran soldier,” Kahlan blurted out, her face as white as a sheet and her hands trembling.

“Sophie, you mean,” Zedd corrected her, taking the little one from Kahlan’s arms.

“No, Zedd, Carina confessed him. She thought he was going to hurt Sophie and before I knew what was happening, she confessed him.”

Zedd knelt down and poked Carina’s belly as he always did, causing her to giggle and throw her arms around his neck. He conjured magical puppets, distracting them so as not to frighten them while he scanned both of the girls for magic.

“Both these girls are Confessors, Kahlan. Sophie hasn’t come into her powers yet, but Carina has.” Feeling herself on the verge of fainting, Kahlan sat down, watching as Carina held her little sister’s hand so that she could take a few steps.

“Zedd, how can it be? I didn’t give birth to her. Dennee has no magic, and Annabelle’s magic is still in the Quillion. None of this makes sense.” She covered her face with her hands, terrified some other Confessor who hadn’t perished at the massacre at Valeria would walk into the Palace demanding her child back.

Zedd stared at her for a long moment, then looked over at the girls. “They both have your eyes, child.”

“Have you ever known me to be with child before Sophie?” What the Wizard was hinting at was impossible.

The Wizard swallowed the lump in his throat, carefully gauging his words. “Carina has your eyes, and Cara’s features –– not to mention her temperament and her hair color.” Zedd knew of Kahlan’s affair with Cara even before Richard did, but out of deference to the Mother Confessor, never spoke of it.

Kahlan took a moment to consider his words. “Nothing in this life would make me happier than to believe that what you’re suggesting is possible. I loved her, Zedd, and I love her still but news of Cara’s death came almost a year before Carina came into our lives. Not to mention that I’m incapable of fathering a child.”

Zedd tipped his head in agreement but still had his doubts. “The girls look tired,” he said, “take them back to the Palace, and let me think on this.”

Kahlan fed and bathed both girls, then, much to their delight, tucked them into bed with her. She didn’t think herself capable of ever allowing either of them out of her sight again.

***

“The child is yours, Kahlan.” The Wizard had spent three days locked in the Keep casting spell after spell, each confirming that Carina was every bit an Amnell.

Kahlan thought it impossible, and yet not. She’d held many children in her arms, but never before had she felt such a deep connection to a child as she’d felt with Carina. The only other time she’d experienced such a bond was when Sophie was placed in her arms for the first time. The difference being that with Carina, it was as if a missing part of herself had been restored. It was Carina who helped her learn to live with the heartache of losing Cara.

“In my heart, I always knew she was mine,” Kahlan said.

“There is powerful magic at play here, Kahlan. I know of no spell powerful enough to conjure a human child out of the ether. You are her mother, yes, but someone else’s blood flows through her veins, and it isn’t Richard’s, I already checked.”

“By my honor, Zedd, I have known no man other than Richard. Is it really possible that Cara gave birth to my child?” she asked, willing it to be true.

“That two women can conceive a child together, I know for a fact is possible.” Zedd paused for a long moment, wringing his hands. He felt more than a little uncomfortable about the question he was about to ask.

“What is it, Zedd? I think we are far beyond the point of coyness.”

“When you and Cara were…do you still have the Rada’Han you wore?” Even without saying the word, the Wizard’s cheeks reddened with embarrassment.

Kahlan furrowed her brow, confused by the question. “A Rada’Han? Cara loved me, Zedd, just as I loved her. It wasn’t some tawdry affair. If we kept it hidden, it was out of respect for Richard.”

“A Mord’Sith capable of enough love to be immune from confession,” Zedd said, turning it over in his head. “I need to think about this.”

“Zedd, if Cara is Carina’s mother, there is a possibility she’s still alive. I’m going to have Richard return to Aydindril immediately. I can’t keep this from him.” Both her hands went to her heart, realizing the enormity of what she’d said. “Cara could still be alive,” she repeated, with tears running down her cheeks.

For a fortnight Richard rode his horse at full gallop, wearing a cloak to travel unnoticed. Since Kahlan had said this was a family matter, he made the trip alone, leaving his most trusted general in charge. As soon as he walked in the door the girls were in his arms, both overjoyed to see their father after almost a half a year. He marveled at how much Sophie had grown, but it also broke his heart that he’d missed so many milestones in her young life. It was safe to say that looking back at his own smile on his daughter’s face, set his heart alight. But it was Carina’s reaction that brought tears to his eyes. Unlike Sophie who was too young for it to be otherwise, Carina remembered everything about her father. She clung to him and kissed his cheeks at least a dozen times. She even drew a family portrait for him to take back to D’Hara with him.

After putting the girls down for a nap, Kahlan told him everything. There were no excuses or omissions. She’d betrayed his trust and it shamed her, but she could not bring herself to regret it, not then and not now. Kahlan saw the rush of anger coloring his cheeks, but other than Carina having Confessor magic, none of this was news to him. He’d known Cara and Kahlan were in love even before they’d realized it. Richard is the Seeker of Truth –– he always sees but many times chooses to look away. He’d even seen Cara every time he looked at his eldest daughter. The irony is that he loved her all the more for it.

The thought of Cara replaced his anger with guilt, for Richard too had secrets. It was to put as much distance between his wife and Cara that he’d sent her to the southernmost outpost. That Cara would meet with death, not once crossed his mind. In his eyes she was invincible. What enemy could possibly get the best of Cara Mason? Unless, of course, Zedd managed to confirm that Cara was with child. If she was carrying Kahlan’s child, Cara would have done anything to carry the baby to term. There is nothing Cara would not have done to lift the burden of being the last of her kind from Kahlan’s shoulders.

Aside from spending time with their children, for the next few days every minute of the day was spent in the Wizard’s Keep. Zedd asked Kahlan hundreds of questions –– many of which she would have rather not answered in front of Richard but this was too important.

Having established that no wizard or sorceress had a hand in it, Zedd told them it came down to the moment of conception. Something either magical or miraculous had taken place, and Carina was the end result. This part of the conversation was particularly painful for Richard. The choice to stay, however, was his.

Taking into consideration that Carina could not have been more than three months old when they found her, Kahlan declared with complete certainty that her daughter was conceived in the Night Wisp forest –– the place where Kahlan had first looked upon Cara and felt love bloom in her chest. It was the emotion she saw in Cara’s face when she described witnessing the birth of the baby Wisps that caused Kahlan to see the Mord’Sith through new eyes. Understandably, whenever the opportunity arose, they stole into the magical land of the Night Wisps to be together.

“A Mord’Sith madly in love with a Confessor, the magic of the Night Wisps, and Confessor magic,” Zedd said, his mind racing toward an imaginary finish line. “You did reach your release that night?” he asked, embarrassing himself as well as the others.

Squeezing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, she said, “Yes, several times.”

“There you have it,” he declared, “Carina is a love child. Confessor’s magic is pure love, the Night Wisps sacrifice themselves to maintain the forest out of love for humanity, and Cara’s love for you transcended even her Mord’Sith training. With all that love, I’m surprised she didn’t give birth to triplets!” That last remark earned him a murderous glare from his grandson.

“Zedd, that only proves that the right conditions existed, not that it actually happened,” Richard said, standing up to stretch his legs, as well as putting some distance between him and Kahlan. This wasn’t easy for him.

“Richard is right, Zedd. This is all speculation.” She covered her face with her hands for a moment, thinking that perhaps they should continue tomorrow.

“We already know she has Confessor magic. All that is left to confirm is that she has Rahl and Wisp magic,” Zedd pointed out.

“Why Rahl magic? Mord’Sith are made, not born.” It struck Kahlan as odd that Carina would have any connection to the Rahl bloodline.

“Oh, but she would. If Carina was born to Cara, she has D’Haran blood; if she has D’Haran blood, the bond is in her blood.”

“Even if she’s never said Devotions?” Kahlan asked, looking between the two men.

“Absolutely,” Zedd replied. “That she hasn’t said Devotions only means she doesn’t feel connected to it, but Richard could still call upon the bond, and she’d be subject to his will.”

“Then let’s find out.” Kahlan and Zedd both rose and headed for the door, but Richard lingered behind.

“What is it, my boy?” Zedd placed a supportive hand on his grandson’s shoulder, awaiting a response.

Kahlan, however, knew the source of his concern even before the Wizard asked the question. “Carina will always be your daughter, Richard. She loves you, that will never change.” He pulled his wife into an embrace and kissed her forehead.

Without making a sound, they went into the girls’ room. Richard invoked the bond to tickle his daughter’s nose. All doubts as to Carina’s parentage were erased. A trip to the Night Wisp forest would be a waste of time: they already knew the truth.

All that was left was determining whether or not Cara was still alive. “I don’t know, Zedd. I’ve only called upon the bond a handful of times. How can I sense one Mord’Sith among millions of D’Harans? And what if I’m wrong? We can’t assume Cara is dead just because I can’t sense her.”

What Zedd suggested next Kahlan opposed vehemently. She’d seen too many of Zedd’s spells go awry to allow him to cast one on her child. There were only two options, find a seer, or go to the witch of Agaden Reach. While the former option was their unanimous preference, it would take far more time.

It took a threat of confession, and the promise of certain death if a lie were to leave her lips, but in the end Shota agreed. Waving her hand over her magical pond, she looked up at Kahlan, and said, “Your lover lives –– barely. By the looks of it, it will take an army to save her.”

“Cara,” Kahlan said, her eyes filled with tears of both joy and sorrow. Cara was alive but evidence of the abuse she’d been living through was all over her body –– even her beautiful face was badly hurt.

The sight of his dearest friend emaciated and covered in her own blood enraged the Seeker. “We have two armies,” he said, both of his fists clenched at his sides.

***

“Forgive me,” Kahlan said to the members of the Central Council when they protested, “obviously I haven’t made myself clear. I’m not requesting your permission; I’m informing you of my plans. In two days’ time, I will lead Aydindril’s army on a search and rescue mission to free an illegally-held prisoner of war.” When someone rumbled a bit, Kahlan flexed and relaxed her hand, delivering a deadly message to everyone in the room: The Mother Confessor answers to no one.

Having stood outside the room while Kahlan met with the Council, when Richard encountered similar resistance from the D’Haran Senate, he followed his wife’s example. Invoking the bond, he directed his attention at a particularly sensitive area of the male anatomy. All of the senators became uncharacteristically eager to please their Lord.

***

The white and blue of Aydindril and the red and gold of D’Hara covered deserts, plains, and mountain ranges to reach their destination. It was an arduous journey –– both leaders made it clear to their armies that failure was not an option. The Mord’Sith, Cara Mason, was to be returned to Aydindril no matter the cost.

Because she was the more experienced of the two, it was the Mother Confessor who led the troops. She was highly regarded by the soldiers of both armies for her decisiveness and courage. Since many of them had served under Cara during her tenure as General of the combined armies, her safe return was a matter of honor and loyalty.

When their final destination was within sight, the Captain of one of the D’Haran battalions unsheathed his sword, and pointing it to the heavens said, “For General Mason.” Every soldier on the field, Midlanders and D’Harans, echoed his words over and over. The chant became a war cry as they stormed the city walls. Richard and Kahlan fought back tears: Cara was not only respected by those who served under her, she was loved.

Kahlan reached down from her steed, and wrapped her hand around the first throat she saw. “Where are the prisoners?” she asked.

“There are no prisoners here,” the large man wearing animal furs snapped back.

When he thought to pull away, it was already too late. “Wrong answer,” Kahlan said, her eyes black swirls as he dropped to his knees. On this day, she wasn’t handing out second chances: the price for a lie, confession.

Those whose job it was to guard this city –– which was nothing more than a prison camp –– attempted to flee when they realized the woman in white was backed by not one, but two armies. They soon found out there was no escape. The two combined armies, 30,000 men strong, deployed for the sole purpose of rescuing one Mord’Sith, were a show of force they hadn’t seen since the war. In less than a half a candlemark, they surrendered and took to begging for their lives.

The conditions the prisoners lived under were deplorable. Never had the Mother Confessor and the Seeker of Truth seen anything like it. Men, women, and children packed into cells –– some already dead, their corpses left to rot. Those still alive, clearly starving. That Cara had given birth to their daughter under these conditions and yet managed somehow to save her, made Kahlan love her all the more, but it also filled her with rage.

Soldiers were tasked with freeing the prisoners and tending to their wounds. The Wizard of the First Order magically healed as many of them as he could, and even conjured food and fresh water for them. They threw themselves at the feet of their saviors, tears of gratitude running down their cheeks. Richard and Kahlan scoured cell after cell, searching for Cara, both reassuring the other she’d be in next one, while secretly fearing the worst.

“Mother Confessor, come quickly,” called out one of her men. At his feet, a woman lay dead. She was Cara’s height and had her coloring, but her face was beaten beyond recognition, and her body severely abused as well.

Kahlan buried her face in her husband’s chest for a moment, but when he reached down to turn the body over, Kahlan stopped him. “No,” Kahlan said, and stepped around him to do it herself. When she did, Kahlan dropped to her knees and wept as she had never done before in her life. The Seeker and the young soldier wiped tears from their own eyes, knowing that never would any of them fully recuperate from this loss.

When she was finally able to speak, Kahlan looked up at them both, and said, “It isn’t Cara.”

Richard placed a hand on her shoulder and started to speak. Knowing what he was about to say, she did not allow it. “It isn’t Cara,” she repeated, her face streaked with tears. “I have loved her more than my life and I have grieved her death once before. It isn’t Cara. We keep looking.” Richard knew otherwise, as did the soldier, but this was what Kahlan needed so they did as she said.

When there were no cells left to check, the Seeker kissed his wife’s forehead, and took her hand in his own. “Let’s go home to our girls.”

Kahlan heard his words but for a long moment it was as if language had left her. She stood perfectly still, her eyes traveling across this place of horrors. “Burn it down,” she said, gesturing with her hand, “and return these people to their villages. The Midlands will provide aid for those left destitute, and those responsible for this will pay for their crimes.” She released Richard’s hand and walked toward her troops, for at that moment she was neither wife nor mother, she was the Mother Confessor of the Midlands, nothing more. If she was to survive losing Cara a second time, it could not be otherwise, at least not until she had her children in her arms.

It took what was left of the day to reunite children with their parents, arrange for the care of orphans, and sort out who hailed from what village. The soldiers were tasked with the responsibility of returning them to their homes and given gold to see to their immediate needs. The rest would come later.

Kahlan moved from task to task, knowing if she were to stop even for a moment, she’d fall to pieces. That was why when she saw a boy, no more than six summers old, chasing a rabbit, she stopped the soldier who was about to run after him and did so herself. He turned out to be a spry little thing who moved almost as quickly as the animal he was chasing. It took a full sprint to catch up with him. “Come here, little man,” she said, bending down to lift him into her arms, but again he took flight. Only to stop dead in his tracks when he came upon a small brick structure, far behind the prison camp, partially concealed by bushes and bramble.

Kahlan took hold of his hand, gingerly approaching the structure for a better look. It had no windows, and the door consisted of two oak planks held together by a series of iron studs. If that weren’t enough to prevent access, it was strengthened by two iron bands, and a thick chain, wrapped around it a half dozen times, and attached to it the largest lock Kahlan had ever seen.

“Do you know what’s in there?” Kahlan asked.

The child thought about it for a long moment, then waved her closer. “Someone as strong as a gar,” he whispered, as if fearing the creature inside were sound asleep, and if he were to wake it, he’d be left to deal with its wrath.

Kahlan gave him a weak smile, and asked, “What are you called?”

“Donavan,” he replied.

“Donavan, I need you to do something very important for me.” He smiled and nodded. “The man with the pretty sword, I need you to find him and bring him here. Tell him the Mother Confessor needs to see him at once.”

As she waited for Richard, she banged on the door and used her dagger to fiddle with the lock, but both where impenetrable. Truth be told, the structure looked as if it had been sealed for millennia. That anyone could survive in that tiny space without light, or water, or food, she thought impossible. Still, there was nowhere else left to look. Sending a prayer up to the Creator, she waited for the Seeker, knowing that the Sword of Truth could cut through anything.

“Kahlan, what is it?” Alarmed by the urgency the boy conveyed, he’d already drawn his weapon. A soldier, carrying young Donavan on his shoulders, stood beside him.

With a deep intake of air, she pointed to the door, and said, “Open it.” Kahlan held her breath, and the boy clung to the soldier’s neck as the Seeker squared his shoulders and lowered the Sword of Truth upon the lock. He then kicked in the door, all of them covering their mouths and noses at the smell of death that escaped from the wretched place. It was pitch black but he didn’t need light to conclude that no creature could survive under such circumstances.

“Cara is gone,” he said to his wife, his gaze dropping to the ground.

“You always were a woefully bad Seeker, but are you now blind as well?” said a faint, worn voice between coughs and hisses.

With no regard for her own safety, Kahlan shoved Richard out of the way and ran inside. Curled up in a corner, every bit of her covered with festering wounds and dirt, was the Mord’Sith Cara Mason. “My love,” Kahlan said. The Seeker rushed in behind her, scooping Cara up in his arms, and removing her from the vile place that had been her prison.

“Get Zedd, she’s dying,” he said to the soldier, who ran at full speed, still holding the boy.

Kahlan sat on the ground, cradling the woman whom she’d thought lost to her in her arms. “The child,” Cara said, looking up at her.

“Our daughter lives, my love.” In witnessing that single exchange, Richard realized his marriage was over. Never had his wife looked at him with such passion and love. It hurt, yes, but it also gave him hope. There was, perhaps, someone in this world who would look upon him the way Kahlan looked at Cara.

Before Kahlan could say another word the Wizard arrived, casting a healing spell. Her condition, however, called for far more than the closing of superficial wounds. “We need to get her to a healer,” he said, casting a second spell that left the Mord’Sith in a deep sleep.

The wagon ride back to Aydindril was a long one but being able to hold Cara in her arms was an answered prayer. When Cara woke from her magically-induced slumber, she was greeted by Kahlan’s lovely smile, followed by a gentle kiss on the lips, and tears of joy.

“Don’t move,” Kahlan said when Cara attempted to sit up. “We still need to get you to a healer.” She ran her hands down Cara’s arms and gently squeezed her hands. “Spirits, Cara, you’re so thin.”

In the same small, worn voice she’d used at the prison camp, Cara said, “I did things, Kahlan, things that you’d call wrong. I did them for the child and for you.”

Kahlan shook her head and pressed two fingers to Cara’s lips. “Nothing you did for our daughter’s sake could be wrong.” Kahlan leaned in and kissed her forehead, then traced Cara’s jaw line and lips with her fingers. Their daughter was every bit the child version of Cara. It brought both tears and a smile to Kahlan’s face. “Her name is Carina and when you meet her you’ll know that nothing you did to save her could possibly be wrong.”

They arrived in Aydindril late into the night. Richard, who had traveled on horseback with the troops, had arrived three days earlier. He and Kahlan agreed that he was to take the girls on holiday so that she could focus all of her attention on Cara’s recovery.

Getting her to submit to an examination was a challenge, but Kahlan gave her that vulnerable look that made it impossible for Cara to refuse her anything. She took the look’s efficacy as evidence that Cara’s feelings for her hadn’t changed. When asked by the healer, Cara explained that while locked in the small brick building, she’d survived by eating earthworms she dug up from the dirt floor, and drinking rain water from a leak in the roof. Kahlan covered her face with her hands, horrified by what Cara had endured for nearly four years. There were many questions left unanswered but they would have to wait.

Kahlan made it her purpose to nurse Cara back to health, and while she was quick to protest, Kahlan’s attention and the gentle caresses that accompanied it, were salve for her wounds and for her soul. Every day Cara grew stronger and Kahlan grew happier. She’d linger in bed watching the Mord’Sith sleep, taking in the sound of her breath –– the joy that sound brought her, rivaled only by her daughters’ laughter.

That Cara would share the Mother Confessor’s bed chamber permanently went without saying. Richard had always had a room of his own at the Palace. While they shared a deep friendship and a genuine love for each other, theirs had never been a passionate union. Even Sophie’s conception was aided by a spell cast by the Wizard of the First Order.

It was on a cool spring night with the light of the full moon pouring in through the open balcony, and a breeze bringing in the scent of flowers which this time of year were all in bloom that Kahlan kissed Cara’s cheek and her clavicle and the top of each of her breasts. Cara needed no additional indication that Kahlan deemed her strong enough to do more than lie in bed gazing into each other’s eyes.

After four long years, they made love for the first time and it was beautiful, just as it had been that first night in the Night Wisp forest. Only on this occasion it was Kahlan who held Cara as if she were something as soft and delicate as the wings of a butterfly. Under different circumstances, Cara would have balked at such gentleness but after what she’d lived through both her body and her spirit needed this tender coaxing that spoke of pure devotion. “I love you more than my life,” Kahlan said, as she held Cara through her pleasure.

Early morning rides along the countryside and lazy afternoons making love in the Mother Confessor’s chambers, that was their life for weeks. It was as if the two of them were falling in love all over again. Only this time, their love was out in the open. Cara regained much of her strength and while she still wasn’t ready to open up about her ordeal, everything else between them was as it had been before Cara was captured.

“The girls will be home soon,” Kahlan said over their morning meal. “They’ll want to meet you.”

Cara pursed her lips staring down at the bowl of porridge before her. “What are they like?”

Kahlan’s entire face lit up at Cara’s interest. “Carina is a miracle of a child. It was she who saved me when I thought you were lost to me. Before she came, I had no will to live; nothing mattered without you by my side.” Noticing the tears welling up in Kahlan’s eyes, Cara reached for her hand across the table. “And it was she who brought you back to me.”

Cara furrowed her brow. “Brought me back how?” Kahlan told her how discovering Carina’s confessor magic led to her rescue –– the corners of Cara’s lips curling up, proud that at such a young age the child already had the courage and instinct to protect her sister.

“Everything about her is you. She’s brave and loyal and smart, and she tries to hide it but she’s kind, Cara, and completely selfless. And Sophie, she’s a tiny bundle of joy who follows her around like a puppy.”

“Spoken like a true mother,” Cara said, earning herself a scowl.

“You’ll see for yourself when you meet them.”

Cara ate the last of her meal and walked to the window, watching the leaves sway in the morning breeze. “What will you tell them about…” she trailed off not certain how to end the question.

“About us? I’ll tell them what I’ve told them their whole lives, the truth. The girls are both confessors. Love and truth is who they are.” Encircling her waist, Kahlan rested her chin on Cara’s shoulder. “I want us to be a family, Cara, to raise them together. We’ve lost too much time already.”

She felt Cara’s body tense with every word. “I don’t know how to be a mother,” she said, “and what of Richard? How does he feel about this arrangement? I swore to serve him.”

Kahlan could see it, the fear in Cara’s eyes. “You’ll serve Richard by caring for me and the girls here. His life is in D’Hara, it has been for years. He and I are friends, nothing more. Even Sophie’s conception required Zedd’s talents.”

Cara furrowed her brow, and asked, “What if I get it all wrong? Not even magic will be able to fix it. And what if they hate me or if I hurt them?”

Kahlan smiled and turned Cara around in her arms. “My love,” she said, kissing Cara’s cheek. “Against all odds, you carried our daughter to term and somehow managed to get her home to me. No child could have a better mother.” Cupping Cara’s cheeks with her hands, she gazed into her eyes wishing, as she had so many times before, that she could read her. “You are the one thing I know I can believe in; even if you doubt yourself, I don’t.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this installment Cara and Kahlan are a pair of soccer moms –– okay, more like dagger and agiel moms –– raising two great girls. They've built a happy life for themselves and all is well with the world. The End. But wait, fast-forward to a few years later and it turns out that delivering baby Carina into Kahlan's arms was not a random act of kindness. There is a price to pay, a very high price. A certain platinum haired Mord'Sith will also make her first appearance. It'll be quite an entrance. Buckle up for an adventure, lovely ladies.

During their holiday, Richard had spoken to his daughters about the new addition to the household and neither seemed to mind –– except Sophie had been hoping for a kitten. Both were eager to meet the woman their father had told them so much about.

The girls were asleep when they arrived back at the Palace so Richard gingerly tucked them into bed, careful not to disturb their slumber. He sat on a chair next to their beds for almost two candlemarks, watching over them. Aside from this extended holiday, he hadn’t spent as much time with them as he would have liked, and now it felt as if they were slipping away from him. His daughters loved him, but it was Kahlan who did the parenting. And now there was Cara, his friend and protector, but also Kahlan’s one true love and Carina’s mother.

He decided at that moment that he had to build a life for himself. A life that included a mate who loved him the way Kahlan and Cara loved each other, not an affectionate companionship with no real passion. He and Kahlan, and now Cara as well, would have to find a way to make it all work.

***

Carina awoke at dawn and quietly dressed her little sister. Taking care to not make a sound, the girls snuck out of their bedroom with the Mother Confessor’s bedchamber as their destination. Since it was not unusual for the children to raid their mother’s bed, the guard opened the door for them.

Standing side by side at the foot of the bed, they both stared at the two sleeping forms curled in each other’s arms. Sophie turned toward her older sister and asked, “Two mommies?” The sound of her voice prompted Cara and Kahlan to open their eyes.

Carina wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips, considering the question. “Yes,” she said, nodding her head, “two mommies.” Kahlan covered her mouth to conceal her laughter, while Cara craned up her neck to look at the tiny intruders –– at a loss as to what exactly was expected of her.

With her sister’s assistance, Sophie climbed into the bed crawling under the covers between the two women, she pressed her nose into Kahlan’s neck and then Cara’s. “The new mommy smells like the old one,” she said to her sister, who promptly climbed on the bed to confirm her sister’s claim.

“Cara, this is Sophie Rahl Amnell and this is Carina Mason Rahl Amnell, whom you’ve already met.”

The oldest of the two crawled up Cara’s chest until their noses were practically touching. “Your hair is like mine,” she said, running her fingers through it. Kahlan looked on with great interest, curious as to how Cara would adjust to her new role.

Much to her surprise, Cara sat up on the bed, lifting the child so that she could meet her gaze. “Thank you,” Cara said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her daughter’s ear, “you were a good baby, and you were very brave. You could not have gotten home otherwise.” The child didn’t understand what Cara meant but because she’s a Confessor, she knew Cara was telling the truth –– only Carina should not have been able to read anything in Cara’s eyes.

“Was I a good baby?” Sophie asked Kahlan, earning herself a hug and a kiss from her mother.

“You were a wonderful baby,” Kahlan assured her. “Why don’t you two go wake your father so that we can all break our fast together?” Both girls hopped off the bed and ran out the door.

When they were alone, Kahlan nuzzled into Cara’s shoulder. “What do you think of the girls?” She bit her lower lip, still wishing she could read her.

Cara thought for a long time –– causing Kahlan no small amount of anxiety –– before finally finding her voice. “I don’t know how to be a mother, but I will make certain no harm ever comes to them and I will love them just as I love you.” After a brief pause, she added, “And we’ll have to remember to lock the bedroom door.”

Kahlan released a sigh of relief, and blushed at the implication of the latter remark. Still, there was something she needed to ask of the Mord’Sith that could very well spoil their reunion. If they were to be a family, there would be no more wars for either of them. She would not have the girls experience the heartache of losing a parent at a young age. Kahlan and Dennee had grieved their own mother’s death as children, and Kahlan had no intention of allowing history to repeat itself. This was one of many pending discussions that would have to wait a bit longer.

When they walked into the dining hall, the Seeker greeted both of them with a smile, and the girls giggled at the sight of Cara who, having been stripped of her leathers at the prison camp, wore a pair of ill-fitting trousers and a man’s shirt borrowed from a staff member. Her Lord, however, had a set of Mord’Sith leathers ready for her and, much to her delight, he had also managed to retrieve her agiels from where they lay discarded at the prison camp. Handling them had not been pleasant but the look on Cara’s face was well worth the pain. “I’ll go change,” Cara said, grateful for the Seeker’s foresight.

Still struggling to fully absorb the morning’s events, Sophie asked, “Are there going to be two daddies?”

“Definitely not,” Richard and Kahlan said in unison. Their daughters glanced at each other and shrugged.

When Cara returned, Kahlan’s heart beat a little faster –– her eyes darkening with something that certainly wasn’t magic –– at the sight of Cara in her leathers. Although she never would have admitted it back then, it had been the same the first time she laid eyes on Cara. That confident swagger of hers was back as well, making it impossible to tear her eyes away from the beautiful Mord’Sith who still took her breath away.

“What about two Sophies?” Carina asked.

Cara took a long look at Sophie who, aside from Richard’s smile, was every bit her mother, and said, “There could never be too many Sophies.” At that moment she was certainly the favorite mommy. Sophie leaped into Cara’s arms, while her sister’s hand went to one of Cara’s agiels. Kahlan reached out to stop her but it was too late –– except nothing happened. There she stood, holding a deadly instrument of torture without so much as blinking.

“Little one, no,” Cara said, pulling her hand away.

The child ran to Kahlan’s side thinking Cara was angry at her. “It’s all right, baby. Cara was afraid you’d hurt yourself.”

“Carina, that didn’t hurt?” Richard asked with his brow tightly kneaded.

She shook her head no and looked at Cara for a long moment. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“You did nothing wrong. It was my fault,” Cara said, dropping to her knees and putting her arms around her daughter for the first time. She closed her eyes, holding her as if she were the most precious thing in all of creation.

“No one did anything wrong,” Kahlan said, “let’s finish our meal and perhaps a little later we will go for a carriage ride.”

“Your agiels aren’t working?” Kahlan asked, scooping her eldest into her arms and taking her back to the table.

“Oh, they’re working,” Cara said with a shrug. And after their meal, back to the Wizards’ Keep they went, only this time Richard and Sophie stayed behind.

Kahlan burst through the door with Carina on her hip, and Cara behind them. “Zedd, look.” She pointed with her chin at the agiel in Carina’s hand.

“Has something happened to Richard?” Zedd asked, raising both this eyebrows.

Cara rolled her eyes and threw her arms up in frustration. “The Seeker is fine, Wizard. It’s the child who concerns us.” Cara took a step to stand next to Kahlan and their daughter. “How can she hold an agiel without feeling pain?”

“Powerful magic,” he said, earning himself two eye rolls this time. “Look what I have here,” he said to Carina, pulling a rabbit out of the ether.

“Kahlan, everything about this child is impossible. At this point, it would not surprise me if she lit up like a Night Wisp and flew over the palace,” he said.

There was, however, one more piece of the puzzle gnawing at the Wizard. “Carina, would you like to play a game?” She promptly nodded at the offer. “I’m going to toss a magical ball at you and I want you to push it away before it reaches you.”

“The magic against the magic,” Cara said, realizing he was trying to confirm Carina was both a Confessor and a Mord’Sith.

When the Wizard released the glowing magical sphere, Carina’s hand instinctively rose and pushed it back to its source. Doing her best to conceal the shock of it, Kahlan smiled at her and said, “That was wonderful, baby, you won the game. Let’s go see Sophie.” Cara and Kahlan took it as an indication that their daughter was indeed a miracle.

Many lengthy discussions between her parents ensued. While Richard brought up the possibility of a Rada’Han at least temporarily, both women vehemently refused. Carina would not be collared like an animal nor would she be made to feel as if something about her was wrong. It was decided that all of Carina’s gifts would be honored and harnessed for good. Her mothers would find a way to balance them.

Soon after, Kahlan and Richard dissolved their marriage and the Mother Confessor took Cara as her mate. But not before the Mord’Sith agreed that they would both lay down their weapons and focus on raising their children. Much to Kahlan’s surprise, Cara agreed to her terms without hesitation. Kahlan tried one last time to get Cara to talk about the ordeal she’d lived through in the south, as well as the details of Carina’s rescue, but her wife pleaded with her to let go. She’d done things, she told Kahlan, things that she had to do for the sake of their family, things that she would not have otherwise done and of which she was not proud. Kahlan saw tears welling up in Cara’s eyes. She never asked again. The past was dead, this was their life now.

The ceremony was quite an event with Cara donning white leathers with a blue sash worn across her chest in honor of her mate’s nation. All of Aydindril gushed over their beautiful queen, every last one of them crying tears of joy. Carina took her responsibilities as ring bearer very seriously while Sophie happily bounced down the aisle in her role as flower girl.

***

Against all odds, they did it, they became a happy family. Carina and Sophie grew into beautiful, kind, and powerful young women. Over the years, Sophie and Cara became especially close. Because Carina’s gifts tended to make her the center of attention, Cara made a point of spending time with Sophie every day. It was Cara who nursed her through childhood illnesses and helped her with her lessons. It was also Cara who taught her how to ride and how to use a bow. That she saw Kahlan in everything about their youngest daughter made her heart swell.

Carina remained very protective of her mother and her little sister. In many ways, she and Cara were two of a kind, which led to some head-butting from time to time but they adored each other. Thanks to their mothers, both girls were skilled fighters possessing a deadly combination of their mothers’ styles. Their rigorous training began at a young age and became a central part of their upbringing: Cara and Kahlan were intent on raising warriors. While they had never been tested on the battlefield, it was unlikely that any opponent could get the better of either of them.

Richard found love several years later and even fathered two boys. Everything had worked out for the best. Cara and Kahlan’s love for each other grew to such an extent that no one could recall a time when they weren’t together. The Mother Confessor and her mate, the Mord’Sith Cara Mason, were inseparable. The strength of their union served as an inspiration for everyone around them. All was well with the world.

It was, however, on the morning of the eighteenth anniversary of Carina’s arrival at the Palace, that it all fell apart. Cara disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a cryptic parchment and a family in crisis.

Kahlan,

You are everything to me. The happiness you and the girls have brought me is more than I deserve. I hoped this day would never come but it has and I must deal with it. When our daughter grew inside me, I swore to her that I would get her home no matter the cost. My debtor has come to collect, leaving me no choice but to take leave of you.

Tell our daughters that I love them and remind Sophie to not drop her left shoulder when she releases an arrow. Those fifteen degrees are the difference between life and death. If she has any doubts, Carina will show her the way for she sees what others don’t. Family is more powerful than any army, especially at this juncture. You and the girls are all that is required. Anything more and it will all be over.

I love you,

Cara

Kahlan was left gasping for air, her hand pressed to the center of her chest. She released a primal cry that reverberated throughout the entire Palace, threatening its very foundation. Carina and Sophie, who were on their way to the dining hall when they heard their mother scream, rushed to her chambers. What they found was as frightening a sight as either of them had ever seen. Kahlan stood in the center of the room, which by the looks of it, she’d torn apart with her bare hands, tears of blood running down her cheeks.

Members of the Home Guard soon followed, but having realized what this was, Sophie pushed them out and slammed the door shut. Kahlan was in the throes of the Con’Dar and if the girls could not stop her, half of Aydindril would likely perish. Sophie wrapped her arms around her mother, absorbing as much of the blood-rage and the magic into her own body as she could manage.

“Mommy,” Carina said, “please stop. You’re scaring me.” Kahlan glared at her as if she were a foreign thing, stretched out her arm and wrapped her hand around her own daughter’s throat. It was the single tear rolling down Carina’s cheek that brought Kahlan back to herself. For a moment, she was in Stowecroft as she had been twenty years earlier, when her hand had been wrapped around Cara’s throat. The memory of her wife’s remorse quelled the blood-rage, her eyes returning to that distinctive shade of blue that mirrored her daughters’, and she collapsed onto the floor. The girls held her until she regained her strength.

Without saying a word, Kahlan handed Carina the parchment. “This is all happening because of me,” Carina said as if it were somehow her fault; she buried her face in Kahlan’s shoulder and wept.

“Baby, this is not your fault,” Kahlan said, regaining her composure out of concern for her eldest, and most sensitive child.

“You’re just like Mom,” Sophie said to her sister, “why must you blame yourself for everything?” She took the parchment from her sister’s hand read it aloud. “I…I don’t, I don’t do that.” she said, “This isn’t right.”

“What is it?” Kahlan asked, furrowing her brow.

“I haven’t dropped my shoulder when I release an arrow since I was six years old. This isn’t right.” She stared down at the note and shook her head.

Kahlan started to say something but Carina cut her off. “Sophie’s right. She has perfect form, Mom said so hundreds of times. Save for Mom, Sophie’s the best archer in all of the territories.”

“A Mord’Sith always has a plan,” Kahlan mumbled, before turning toward her daughters. “Your mother is telling us how to find her.

“Sophie, go get your bow and quiver,” Kahlan said to her youngest. “Carina, ready our horses.”

Carina hesitated for a moment; never before had a request from her mother not been preceded by the word please. “Yes, Mother Confessor.” For the first time in her life she truly understood the difference between her mommy, as she still called Kahlan, and the Mother Confessor of the Midlands. It sent a chill up her spine, along with a surge of pride.

When the three of them reached the clearing, which was the spot where Cara trained Sophie as an archer for years, Kahlan pulled out the parchment and read it aloud. “Sophie, what is your mother trying to tell us?” Her tone was impassive but her daughter knew her well enough to recognize that she was hanging on by a thread.

Sophie raised her brow, at a loss as to what was expected of her. She’s a Confessor and a master archer, but certainly not a seer. Kahlan tilted her head, studying Sophie’s movement. “What would you do if your mother were here, Sophie?”

The girl closed her eyes for a moment, visualizing the routine she and Cara followed during their practice session. She nodded and drew an arrow from her quiver, standing at the exact spot where she would have stood if Cara were with her. She released the arrow and it hit its mark, just as she knew it would.

“Do it again,” Kahlan said, “only this time ––”

“Drop your shoulder by fifteen degrees,” Carina said, cutting Kahlan off. “Mommy, you’re a genius.”

“No,” Kahlan said, “I just know how my wife’s mind works.”

Sophie dropped her shoulder by exactly fifteen degrees and released the arrow. As Cara planned, the arrow landed in the hollow of a nearby tree. After exchanging a quick glance, they walked toward it without a single word passing between them. When they were some thirty paces away, Kahlan extended her arm and said, “Stay back, it could be a trap.” Sophie started to protest but one look from the Mother Confessor stopped her dead in her tracks. Withdrawing her dagger from her garter, she walked the rest of the distance with her daughters at the ready to provide cover if it was needed. Kahlan reached in and withdrew a small leather satchel.

By the looks of it, it had been there for years. Kahlan shook her head and released a sigh of frustration. “Cara, you knew this was going to happen, you knew and you never told me,” she mumbled to her missing wife. “You better have one hell of a plan because if you die, I’ll kill you.” The girls, who were standing just a few paces behind her, exchanged glances. If Cara managed to get out of this alive, she was going to spend many nights sleeping in the stables.

“Let’s get back to the Palace,” Kahlan said, looking up at the darkening sky, “before the rain.”

“But Mommy, what of the second part of Mom’s message?”

“Your mother is not one for riddles; she’ll give us our answers.” With that, they returned to the Palace at full gallop.

While Kahlan was hoping the contents of the satchel would explain everything, all it did was deepen the mystery. “Girls, go take your meal. I need time alone.” By time alone Kahlan meant time to fall apart. The satchel contained a series of faded parchments from which she could gather nothing, and also an odd round device made of gold that when opened, revealed a series of numbers and a broken crystal, attached to it a chain also made of solid gold.

She sat on the edge of the bed, still holding the useless things, and wept. Only perhaps they weren’t useless at all, for when a single tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the parchment, the ink came to life revealing a map drawn by Cara’s unmistakable hand. Kahlan rolled her eyes: of course Cara would have the parchment spelled, and of course she knew the sight of it would make Kahlan cry. “What of this device, my love?”

***

For the first time in nearly two decades, Kahlan tossed aside her white Confessor’s gown, dusted off her leather travel dress, and strapped a sword to her back. Stepping into the dress, which was still a perfect fit, took her back to the search for the Stone of Tears. Richard was just a boy, and she, an inexperienced young Confessor, when Cara walked into their lives. How she struggled to push away her feelings for the ill-tempered Mord’Sith, but in the end the heart wants what it wants. Even her marriage to Richard could not quell the passion between them.

“Mom,” Sophie said, “what are you wearing?” Carina scratched her head but didn’t say anything.

Kahlan didn’t bother to reply. She tossed them each a pack, and said, “Get your things ready. We leave in two candlemarks.” The girls were speechless.

“But shouldn’t we have…soldiers or at least members of the Home Guard accompany us?” Carina asked.

“You read your mother’s note. This is a family matter, now go get ready.”

The girls were more than a little skeptical but they picked up the empty packs and headed for their quarters. Instead of gathering their things, however, they had a lengthy discussion regarding their quest to find Cara and arrived at a decision. They agreed that Carina, being the oldest, would inform Kahlan. Sophie, of course, would be at her side for moral support.

Both girls took a deep breath and entered Kahlan’s chamber. They stood side by side in awkward silence for a moment looking at each other, and then at their mother. Sophie nudged her sister in the ribs with her elbow but she still didn’t say anything.

“Well,” Kahlan said, rather impatiently, “what is it?”

Carina took another deep breath, licked her lips, and finally spoke. “Mommy,” she said, rolling her eyes at her own childishness, “Sophie and I have decided that, well, you’re too…” She paused to look over at her sister for help.

“Old,” Sophie blurted out, “and so you should stay here.” Carina looked over at Sophie and gave her a supportive nod.

Kahlan blinked, and tipped her head glaring at them both. “Why you spoiled, arrogant, little princesses. Do you actually think you’d survive a single battle out there without me?” Her hands were on her hips, and she let loose a derisive chuckle. “If your mother were here she’d bend you both over her knee. Come to think of it, I may do it myself.”

The girls both took a step back when she stalked toward them. “Tell me, Sophie, how many men have you taken down with those superb archery skills of yours? Sixty, seventy, a hundred?” Sophie stared down at her own boots. She’d downed three deer, and every time she’d burst into tears from the guilt. “That’s what I thought,” Kahlan said.

“And you, my sweet, sensitive Carina, during your training session with members of the Home Guard, did you ever run any of them through with a sword? Did you ever use your agiels on any of them? Did either of you ever best me or Cara? Have either of you ever taken a man twice your size by the throat and released your magic? And no, Carina, that freak accident when you were three doesn’t count.”

“But you and Mom trained us,” Sophie said, “you made us hone our skills every day. What was the point?”

“The point of training is to teach you humility and a good work ethic which clearly your mother and I failed to do. We made this world safe for you, maybe too safe. We fought wars, we defeated the Keeper himself so that you would never have to live through the horrors we lived through.”

Sophie and Carina were too ashamed to meet their mother’s gaze. “Now if you two will excuse me, given my advanced age, I haven’t any time to waste. My wife needs me.” The girls were certain they were never going to live this down.

***

“That went well,” Carina said to her little sister, who had orchestrated their little coup d’état.

“Let’s just get our mother back,” Sophie said.

When the girls returned with their packs in tow –– and the aftertaste of a generous helping of humble pie –– Kahlan gave them a stern look but her eyes quickly softened. “You’ll need these.” Kahlan handed her eldest daughter Cara’s neatly-folded Mord’Sith leathers and her agiels. Carina swallowed the lump in her throat and changed into her mother’s leathers; save for the longer hair and the blue eyes, she was Cara’s very image.

Kahlan and her girls mounted their steeds with only Cara’s hand-drawn map to guide them, and the odd device that all three of them deemed useless. After a half a day of travel, they arrived at the first destination which Cara had designated with a single, neatly-drawn circle. While the Mother Confessor of the Midlands had never visited the establishment, or any others of its ilk, she immediately realized the services it provided, and was fairly certain as to the identity of its proprietor. “Denna.” She said the name as if it were the vilest of insults.

They tied their horses behind the bushes and watched as patrons exited the establishment. They were all dressed in finery and most traveled by carriage, with servants in tow. Denna catered exclusively to the upper echelon of Midlands society. Kahlan smirked and shook her head when she caught a glimpse of one of her own generals walking out looking the worse for wear as he stumbled into his carriage.

Sophie and Kahlan were both gripping their daggers, taking in every detail of the scene. Carina, however, was standing slack-jawed, distracted by a tall brunette with a plunging neckline and a pair of legs that went on forever. Kahlan rolled her eyes and gave her a shove. “Spirits, you are your mother’s daughter. Now focus.” Carina gestured an apology with her hands and stood beside her mother and her sister.

After almost two candlemarks, Denna walked out wearing a gown that accentuated every one of her assets. Kahlan took in every detail of the platinum-blonde former Mord’Sith. Her pale skin remained untouched by the sands of time, her eyes were bright and alert, but there was an aura of sadness about her that neither beauty nor arrogance could mask. Life hadn’t turned out as she had planned, Kahlan was certain of it. She also seemed smaller somehow, less imposing than she had been years earlier –– although, she was still deadly, Kahlan was certain of that as well.

“Boy,” Denna called out to a stable hand, “bring my carriage around. Tonight I’m sleeping in my own bed.” Her voice, the distinctive timbre of her voice, it was still the same, albeit a bit raspier. The image of her standing beside Zedd all those years ago, with Cara about to loose an arrow that would have ended Denna’s life, suddenly flooded Kahlan’s mind. Denna lived because Zedd believed in her. Kahlan wanted him to be right for if they were here it was because Denna knew something that could help Kahlan and the girls get Cara back.

“Yes, Madame Denna,” the boy said, turning the corner toward the side of the building.

In less than a heartbeat, Denna felt a strong, and eerily familiar, hand wrap around her throat. “Denna,” Kahlan said, her lips a hairsbreadth away from Denna’s ear. Kahlan felt Denna’s pulse racing as she tightened her grip.

“Why, Mother Confessor, it’s been…not long enough. To what do I owe this honor?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the last chapter Madame Denna made her entrance. In this one she will play minstrel, sharing a heck of a tale with us. Buckle up, ladies, Denna is in the house!

“I think you know,” Kahlan said, “and unless you’ve grown tired of living, you are going to tell me where my wife is.”

“And what makes you think I know anything about her whereabouts? My merchandise was always too delicate for her. Perhaps you should try an establishment that caters to a…rougher clientele.”

When she moved to tear away from Kahlan’s grip, Carina and Sophie showed themselves, standing menacingly on either side of her, Carina’s agiel hovering over her heart and Sophie’s dagger pressed to her jugular.

Denna’s eyes went to Carina, a storm of emotions traveling through her face. No amount of Mord’Sith training could prepare her for this. “Cara,” she said in a small voice with her brow furrowed. Just then, Denna’s carriage pulled up but she waved the boy off. “Later,” she said, without taking her eyes off Carina.

“No,” Kahlan said, releasing her grip on Denna’s throat.

It took Denna a moment to compose herself, but then the pieces to the puzzle came together. It was Cara, or rather Cara’s face –– with Kahlan’s eyes. Denna blinked and shook her head. “The brat lived,” she said. “But the agiels… Cara trained her own brat. I wouldn’t have thought she had it in her.” She then turned toward Sophie. “And look at you, Richard spawned a Confessor. How is the Lord Rahl?”

“Cara never laid a hand on our daughters,” Kahlan said.

Denna had no idea what to make of that remark, but it would have to wait. Her primary concern was getting out of her current predicament alive. Facing off against two Confessors and a Mord’Sith hadn’t been part of her plans for the evening, especially since one of those Confessors was Kahlan Amnell. “Yes, well, a happy family. Now then, why are you here?”

“My wife is missing and you know something.” Kahlan crossed her arms on her chest and glared at her. “If you value your life, I suggest you start talking.”

“I haven’t seen Cara since she tried to put an arrow through my back, over twenty years ago.”

Sophie and Kahlan both turned to look at Carina. “She’s lying.”

Denna’s lips parted; the certainty with which the young Mord’Sith spoke surprised her. Kahlan’s hand was on Denna’s throat again. “One lie, Denna, that is all you get. Now tell me what you know, or I’ll confess you.”

“Fine, we crossed paths a few years ago. We had a few glasses of ale and went our separate ways.”

“She’s lying again,” Carina said.

“How the fu––?” Denna started to say, but Kahlan tightened her grip before she could finish. “In the south, I saw Cara in the south, when she was with child.”

Carina nodded. “She’s telling the truth.”

Denna threw her arms up in frustration. “She should not be able to do that,” she said, glaring at Kahlan.

“My daughters have numerous talents,” Kahlan said with a smirk on her face. “Carina, confess her,” Kahlan said to her eldest.

“She’s a Confessor as well? Leave it to Cara…” Denna said. “Go ahead, confess me, now I’ve seen it all.”

“Denna, I didn’t come here to kill you, but I will if you don’t start talking.”

It only took Denna a moment to decide that she wasn’t quite done with this world. “D’Hara was in shambles after you and Richard defeated the Keeper, the people were starving, begging in the streets. The war in the south presented many possibilities in my line of work so I traveled there with a few dozen of my girls. The men, they were barbarians, animals, every last one of them, but their purses were heavy with gold. I’d heard rumors of a Mord’Sith being captured. They were all terrified of her. There were stories; they claimed she’d killed fifty men with her bare hands, that it took a hundred barbarians to take her down. I had no idea Richard had deployed Mord’Sith to the south; doing so made no sense. That he would send Cara there, well, that would have been unthinkable. She was much too valuable to send on such a mission. It was four months later that I saw her with my own eyes. The captured Mord’Sith was Cara and her belly was heavy with child. You, I assume,” she said, turning toward Carina, then back to Kahlan.

“Go on,” Kahlan said.

“I only caught a glimpse of her, but even with all the cuts and bruises, I knew it was her. She was in chains, being dragged out of a shed. There was a man, a civilized one, I’d seen him there before but on that day I paid more attention. He was buying prisoners, men mostly, strong ones, but he was interested in Cara as well. He’d heard the stories about her. I walked into the room where they’d taken her with one of the generals from the south; he was rather enamored with me. They wanted a Mord’Sith; Cara could have betrayed my identity to save herself, or to take me down with her, but she didn’t. She looked me in the eyes then down at her belly. No words were needed to understand what she was asking of me.” Denna paused for a moment. “Let’s go inside, I need a drink.”

Kahlan looked over at the girls and gave them a nod. “One wrong move, Denna…” That was all Kahlan said. At this late hour, Denna was more interested in unburdening herself than starting a fight she knew she could not win.

“Cara and I were different, from each other, but also from the rest of our so-called Sisters. Cara was loyal and she was capable of love, and of kindness. Even I couldn't train those weaknesses out of her. She wanted to be more than a Mord’Sith, and so did I, but not because I was noble or good. I wanted power, I wanted to answer to no man ever again.” She poured herself a shot of D’Haran whiskey and one for Kahlan; the girls sat riveted by the exchange. “What Cara was asking of me was impossible, and even if it hadn’t been, I had no interest in risking my life for her or her child. But that look in her eyes, it haunted me for days. I learned from the General that the man buying prisoners had decided to take Cara; the child would be discarded after the birth. Days before Cara was to be moved from the prison camp, a woman approached me. She too had an interest in the captured Mord’Sith. Why she came to me, I do not know, but the moment I saw her I knew she was from the Old World. Raina, a Mord’Sith who had been taken from there as a child, shared a cell with me at the People’s Palace for years. The accent, the mannerisms, they were unmistakable. I told her that if she wanted Cara it was going to cost her. Gold, she said, was not a problem but she wanted to know Cara’s terms. It was the coin from that transaction that paid for this place.” She looked around the lavishly decorated establishment with a sad a smile on her face. “My friend the General arranged for the woman to see Cara. I don’t know what she demanded in return, but a few days later, the man who bought the prisoners turned up dead, along with five others, and Cara gave birth. The woman swore on her life that the child would be returned to the arms of Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor of the Midlands. Cara owed her for that and she would remain in the prison camp until the time came to pay her debt. The last time I saw Cara, you were in her arms,” she said to Carina. “She told you that she loved you, she kissed your forehead, and she asked you to be brave. I brokered the deal but what was required of Cara in return I do not know.”

The girls were leaning on either side of their mother, Carina’s face streaked with tears, and Sophie’s filled with rage. They would get Cara back and the people responsible would be made to pay for their crimes. Sophie, unlike her sister, who was all feelings, prided herself on being a thinker. “Why did Father send Mom to that place?” Sophie asked. She hadn’t put it all together yet but she was turning it over in her head at a rapid speed.

With Carina looking directly at her, Kahlan knew that lying wasn’t an option. “That is a conversation that we will have as a family once we are all back home, including your father.” Sophie thought to protest but this wasn’t the time. She respected her mother too much to question her in front of a stranger. Denna, however, was far from an ingénue. ‘The Mother Confessor is a woman of honor,’ Cara snapped at her years earlier. Denna had known Cara for most of her life, her protectiveness toward Kahlan was a surefire sign that her Sister was harboring a crush. Richard sent Cara to the south because she was sleeping with his wife. He wanted to punish them for falling in love; Denna had no doubt about it.

With a deep intake of air, Kahlan rose to her feet. “Let’s go,” she said. The girls were on their feet immediately as was Denna. “Shouldn’t you change?” Kahlan asked Denna, looking back at her over her shoulder.

“Change what?” Denna tipped her head awaiting a response. Already the sudden churning in her stomach told her she was in trouble.

“Out of that gown and into something more suitable for travel,” Kahlan said, licking her lips and crossing her arms. The girls glanced at each other then back at their mother. They were as taken aback as Denna.

“I have no travel plans,” Denna said, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Ah, but you do,” Kahlan said. “Isn’t that right, girls?” Carina and Sophie nodded.

“Now see here ––” Denna started to say, but Kahlan’s raised palm sufficed to silence her.

“You are the one who has knowledge of this woman. You are the one who profited at my wife’s expense. And you are the one who I’m going to kill if any harm comes to her. And above all else, I don’t trust you, Denna, so I want you where I can see you.”

“But I told you everything. And besides, you have the miracle child to confirm that I’m telling the truth,” Denna said, waving her hand in Carina’s direction.

Carina rolled her eyes. That miracle child moniker had been a thorn in her side since childhood. “Do as my mother says or you’ll be the one in need of a miracle,” she said.

Denna released a sigh and, with Kahlan stalking behind her, went into the back of her wardrobe and pulled out a set of dusty Mord’Sith leathers. “Interesting choice,” Kahlan said. Denna pulled a face but said nothing.

“I’ll take that,” Carina said, quickly divesting Denna of her agiel. That the girl could hold an agiel with which she hadn’t trained without a trace of discomfort made Denna want to bludgeon her with the nearest object, but by now she suspected that Cara’s brat could probably give herself the Breath of Life.

And thus they set off, two Confessors (well, technically three) and two Mord’Sith –– one of them more than a little reluctant –– to rescue Cara –– again. Kahlan had a mind to chain Cara to their marital bed once they got through this ordeal. Although she knew that the moment she held Cara in her arms again all would be forgiven. Cara held Kahlan’s heart in her hands from the first time she laid eyes on her; that hadn’t changed in the last twenty years and would not change now.

For as much as she grumbled, Kahlan and the girls noticed that donning her leathers gave Denna a surge of confidence, a sense of power that she hadn’t felt in years. “Wait,” Denna said, just as they were about to walk out the door. She then reached behind her head, and without the aid of a looking glass, expertly braided her own hair. “Now we can go.” Kahlan was more than a little amused at Denna’s attempt at recapturing her days as a Mord’Sith, but also saddened. Her initial assessment of Denna’s life had been correct.

They rode by the light of the early morning sun, with Kahlan at point, Denna and Carina riding side by side, and Sophie behind them. The map Cara left for Kahlan guided them to one more location. While Kahlan hadn’t made the connection when she first looked over the map, standing in front of the structure brought back a flood of memories. “Wait here,” she said, jumping off her mount and disappearing behind some bushes. Carina wrinkled her forehead looking back at her sister over her shoulder, but Sophie shrugged and shook her head. Neither of them had any recollection of ever visiting the secluded spot –– even Denna was intrigued.

Kahlan walked the short distance to a quaint cabin with the letters C and K carved on the door. “My love,” Kahlan said, hoping against hope that upon opening the door, she’d find Cara lounging on the bed, without a stitch of clothing on, waiting for her to walk through the door. This had been their secret hideaway when the girls were younger. After putting them down for their nap, she and Cara would steal away for lazy afternoons of uninterrupted lovemaking. This place was theirs and theirs alone.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before turning the key in the lock, willing Cara to be on the other side of the door. She wasn’t. Still, she knew Cara brought her here for a reason. As she walked around the cabin searching for a clue of some sort, she found herself flooded with memories of all the happy moments they’d shared here. It was easy when the girls were small, to steal away together for a few hours, but as they got older things changed. The girls had lessons to attend, training sessions, and social activities. It caused their visits to this special place to become infrequent –– to such an extent that Kahlan could not remember the last time they’d been here. A year, perhaps two? Maybe it had been even longer. The realization made her heart ache to such an extent that she sat on the edge of the bed and covered her face with her hands. “I’m going to find you, my love, and when I do, I promise you, our marriage will always come first.”

She rose to her feet and took a mental survey of the place. Just as she was about to give up, she noticed it, one tiny item out of place. The music box Cara gifted her years ago sat atop the wrong end of the mantle –– she was fairly certain of it. Hoping for the best, she walked across the room and opened it. In it she found a coin, a very distinctive coin with markings she’d never seen before. She examined it closely and released a sigh. Hunting for random objects was frustrating and time-consuming. By now she’d welcome a good fight. She slipped the coin into her pocket and turned to leave but out of a need for comfort, she opened the music box again, this time winding it to hear the lovely tune it played, only it wasn’t music that it produced this time, it was Cara’s voice.

“Kahlan, I’m afraid I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time. If I am to get out of this mess, I will need you and the girls to help me. I am not one for riddles but this is the safest way to stay in touch with you. The coin you hold in your hand, or probably in your pocket by now, will open a door when you most need it. The task before me is insurmountable, I knew it to be so from the start but I had no choice, not when our daughter’s life was at stake. I miss you, Kahlan, I miss you and I love you.”

The sound of Cara’s voice filled Kahlan with so much emotion that she could not hold back the tears that for days she’d been fighting. She had no choice but to take a moment to steel herself before rejoining the others. “Let’s go,” she said as she mounted her horse, heading to the south. Denna and the girls were bursting with curiosity but the look on Kahlan’s face led them to refrain from asking. It occurred to Kahlan that the message Cara left her in the music box may have been recorded months ago, or perhaps years. All of this had been set into motion without her knowledge. It felt like a betrayal but she knew Cara’s only intention had been to allow the girls to have a carefree childhood, and to make Kahlan happy. Cara bore the knowledge that someday it could all fall part, yet not once had she been anything other than a loving wife and mother. For as much as she tried, Kahlan could not be angry at her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this installment, Kahlan's girls face the reality of what it means to be warriors, Denna has a decision to make, and being separated from Cara continues to take its toll on Kahlan.

The fight Kahlan was hoping for came sooner than expected. Denna and Kahlan glanced at each other, both having noticed that they had company. “Three,” Denna said, “maybe four.”

“No,” Kahlan said, “five. There’re two more around the bend.” These were odds that with Cara at her side, Kahlan would have found laughable but not being able to trust Denna, and with the girls being untested in battle, she was more than a little nervous. Still, she knew this moment would arrive sooner rather than later.

“Carina,” she said, riding up next to her eldest, “on my signal toss Denna her agiel.” Carina furrowed her brow; it only took her a moment to realize the implication of her mother’s request.

“There’s trouble,” Denna said to Sophie, “I trust you were taught well.” Sophie swallowed hard and looked over at her mother, who with a single glance, told her all she needed to know.

When one of the riders who had been following them charged toward them, Kahlan gave Carina a nod and she promptly returned Denna’s weapon. With a look of sheer joy on her face, Denna rushed toward him, knocking him off his mount with a single strike.

Sophie loosed an arrow that struck one of the men who had been hiding around the bend sending him flying off his horse. He lay dead, sprawled in the bramble with blood oozing out of his chest. Sophie felt that arrow as if it had pierced her own heart but in a flash, Kahlan was at her side. “Baby, it’s all right,” Kahlan said, before turning around and grabbing the throat of a man rushing at her with a sword in hand. Denna downed a hulk of a man who came at her with an axe, while Carina, with one of her agiels pressed to his throat, dragged the last one left to where her mother stood.

“I can’t understand what he’s saying,” Kahlan said as the confessed man knelt before her.

“So let’s kill him and move on,” Denna said as if were the most natural thing in the world.

“No,” Carina said, taking hold of Denna’s wrist. “I’ll get Sophie, she’ll translate.”

Carina found her little sister sitting on a log with her knees hugged to her chest –– her cheeks still streaked with tears. She put her arm around Sophie and said, “I’m sorry, it should have been me who killed him, not you.”

Sophie shook her head. “Carina, stop it. You would have hurled yourself off a cliff if you’d done it. We’re not like our mothers. We’re not warriors; we’re spoiled little princesses, like Mom said.”

Carina shrugged. “Yeah, we are, but we have to get Mommy back and if that means becoming warriors then that’s what we’ll do. I don’t want to kill anything, Sophie, but for you, and for our mothers, and even for that homicidal Mord’Sith, I’ll do.”

Sophie gave her a sad smile and a nod. “You really need to stop calling her that. You sound like a four year old.”

Carina narrowed her eyes and gave her a sideways glance as they walked back to the others. “They’ll always be my mommies.” Sophie rolled her eyes, her big sister was hopeless.

“Sophie, do you understand what he’s saying?” Kahlan asked, running her hand down Sophie’s arm.

“He wants to know how he can serve you, and also he loves you.” Given the man’s less than appealing appearance, Sophie scrunched her nose at that last part.

“Ask him who sent him here to attack us and why.”

“He says his mistress –– his other mistress, not you –– sent him and the others here to keep you from interfering with the Great Warrior’s obligation to her. He says his other mistress has waited a long time to get back what is hers and the Great Warrior swore to retrieve it. Seven are dead, he says, but six more must die at the Great Warrior’s hand before that which belongs to his other mistress can be returned to her.”

“Ask him what the Great Warrior must retrieve for his other mistress,” Kahlan said. Denna rolled her eyes, ‘Great Warrior’ indeed.

Sophie shook her head. “He doesn’t know.”

“Tell him that I command him to tell his other mistress that he and his cohorts succeeded in their task. He is to tell her that we are all dead. And tell him to tell us where we can find this mistress of his.” Kahlan’s fists were clenched at her sides, the fury that had overtaken her back at the Palace, again rising to her chest. The thought of this woman forcing Cara to become her creature for the sake of their daughter’s life enraged her. “A baby, Carina was just a baby,” she said, fueling her own anger.

“He says her lair is beyond the Great Divide, across the realm that separates that which is from that which has been.” Sophie found it impossible to discern his meaning.

“The past from the present?” Kahlan mused.

“The language he speaks has no words for the concepts of past and present. A more literal translation would be space from time,” Sophie explained. “It’s an ancient dialect that I learned from Mara. She used to sing it in the kitchen.” Sophie was quite the scholar, even at this young age. She was fluent in four languages and various dialects, but this one she’d learned as a child from one of the cooks who had long since passed. There were no books to reference.

Carina smiled sadly and kissed Sophie on the temple. “My baby sister, the genius.” Denna studied the interactions between the girls with interest. There was no trace of rivalry or jealousy between them. Mord’Sith were driven to excellence by constant competition and threats of violence, but Cara and Kahlan’s girls were driven by something far greater, something which Denna could not name.

“He says that without the others, his homeland is lost to him. They had to invoke an incantation that served as the key to return them to their land.” Sophie turned toward her mother. “What will become of him?”

Kahlan had confessed countless men and women but it never got easier; what confession takes cannot be restored. “Tell him that I command him to build a good life for himself and to never take up arms on the side of evil again.”

“That’s it?” she asked, shame and anger lacing her words. “We send him out into the world all alone? Everything dear to him, his family, his friends, what of them?”

Kahlan took a deep breath and rested her hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “This is what it is to be a Confessor, Sophie. You know what we do and why we do it. For as best as we could, your mother and I have tried to make this world a place in which confession would not be necessary. But know this, baby, I will confess an army of men to get my wife back.” Sophie nodded warily and did as she was told. At that moment, and for a long time to follow, she questioned the entire existence of her kind.

Kahlan left the girls and the confessed man to bury the bodies and tend to the horses. “Denna,” she called out, “we need to talk.”

Denna raised an eyebrow but followed Kahlan away from the others. “That you could have gotten Cara and Carina to safety but, instead, bargained with their lives, is reprehensible. Still, I won’t force you to travel with us any further.”

Denna blinked and parted her lips, standing before Kahlan speechless for a long moment. “You’re sending me away?” she asked in as vulnerable a tone as Kahlan had ever heard leave Denna’s lips. For a moment Kahlan was back in Stowecroft, reliving the memory of Cara’s fate when Richard ordered Cara to take leave of them. It was then that Kahlan understood that all Mord’Sith longed to be a part of something.

Kahlan moistened her lips and shook her head. “No, I’m giving you a choice.”

Denna found herself at a crossroads. Her pride demanded that she turn on her heels, taking leave of them without a backwards glance. Doing so, however, led her directly back to the drudgery that had become her life at the brothel. These last few days with Kahlan and the girls had given her a purpose and made her feel alive in ways she hadn't experienced in years. Still, the choice was not an easy one. "I suppose if I choose to leave you'll have the miracle child confiscate my agiel again?" Denna asked.

The thought hadn’t even occurred to Kahlan. She therefore started to say no but then it all felt eerily familiar. She’d danced this dance before –– with Cara –– many times. “Yes, of course,” Kahlan said, crossing her arms on her chest.

“Well then, I have no choice but to stay,” Denna said in the most put-upon tone she could manage. With her pride safe, she walked back to help the girls. Kahlan was more than a little amused at having to navigate the murky waters of the Mord’Sith ego with someone other than her wife.

Sitting by the fire later that night, Kahlan began to piece together the clues she had as to Cara’s whereabouts. The map, of course, served an obvious purpose but now she also had a coin she was to use to open a door, which of course, made no sense: keys open doors, not coins. Then there was also that other device, the odd one with all the numbers on it. It was important somehow but Kahlan had no idea how or why.

“She’s going to try to stop us again,” Kahlan said, breaking the silence that had taken hold of their little group for the past few hours. “When her men don’t return, she’ll know we defeated them and she’ll try again. We have to set a trap somehow.” Kahlan rose to her feet and paced before the fire. “Does she have magic?” Kahlan asked, looking back at Denna over her shoulder.

“I don’t know,” Denna replied. “Her men did mention an incantation.”

“If she does, I’ll be ready for her,” Carina said, “Denna and I both.”

Denna blinked and allowed her arms to hang at her sides. “She has the magic against the magic, too? Never mind,” she said with a wave of her hand, “she probably has the key to eternal life and a pet unicorn, as well. And the other one speaks in tongues. Leave it to Cara.” She sighed and sat down again.

“I had a little to do with it as well,” Kahlan pointed out. “Now, back to the plan, we will have to split up. Carina and I will take point. She can protect me from magic, and I can help her if a battle ensues. Denna and Sophie, you two will follow us at a safe distance. Since the woman will recognize you,” she said to Denna, “it’s best to keep you out of sight. Sophie, if the opportunity arises, confess her. Same goes for you, Carina. That will be the simplest way to get your mother back. Now go take rest,” she said to the others, “I’ll take first watch.”

First watch was always Cara’s watch. In the early days of their friendship, which also served as their courtship, Kahlan would slip out of her bedroll and, under the guise of insomnia, she’d take her place at Cara’s side while the others slept. Their first kiss took place during Cara’s watch. It was on a particularly cold night, with a low-hanging moon, and a sky lit by stars. Kahlan was wrapped in a blanket with Cara’s arm around her for additional warmth as they walked the perimeter of their camp. Cara came to a sudden stop, and Kahlan asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?” Cara parted her lips as if to speak but she could not form words, not with Kahlan standing so close that they shared the same breath. One of Kahlan’s hands went to Cara’s hip, pulling her a tiny bit closer, then her gaze dropped to Cara’s lips. Cara needed no further encouragement. She pressed Kahlan’s back to a nearby tree and kissed her for what remained of her watch.

“You miss her, don’t you?” Denna asked, shattering Kahlan’s musing.

“I do,” Kahlan said with a sad smile on her face.

“Why? She’s insufferable,” Denna said with a scowl.

Kahlan chuckled. “Because she’s more precious to me than my own life. She’s my wife and my lover and my best friend. She’s the best mother I could have given my children, and she’s good to me, Denna.”

“This is Cara we’re talking about?” Denna asked with a raised eyebrow. Kahlan chuckled a second time and nodded. “She’s ill-tempered, stubborn as the day is long, moody, prone to sulking, and overly emotional.”

“She’s brave, and loyal, and attentive –– and she makes me happy. When I thought her dead, all those years ago, I lost my will to live.” Kahlan paused to wipe away a tear that she failed to hold back. “Carina was her gift to me; I would not have survived losing Cara without her. You had a hand in that and I’m grateful to you. Haven’t you ever been in love, truly in love to the point that you could not imagine yourself without that person by your side?”

“It sounds positively awful, so luckily, no I haven’t,” Denna said, “I’ll take the next watch.”

With that, Kahlan slipped into her bedroll with her girls at either side of her. Sleep, however, eluded her. “We’re going to get Mommy back,” Carina leaned in and whispered into Kahlan’s ear. “I’ve watched you two all my life; nothing could ever come between you.”

Kahlan curled her lips into a hint of a smile and kissed her forehead. “Sleep, baby, we have long days ahead of us.”

Carina respected her mother just as much as she loved her. For that reason she hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “I have a journey book,” she said, “Maybe Dad can send troops to…” she trailed off, thanking the spirits that it was too dark to see the look in her mother’s eyes.

“No,” Kahlan said flatly, “your mother’s parchment was very precise. I will not risk losing what I hold dearest by second-guessing her.” Carina started to argue but Kahlan’s raised palm silenced her. “Under these circumstances, there’s no one’s judgment I trust more than your mother’s –– except perhaps my own intuition, which is telling me to trust my wife.” Kahlan could feel her eldest’s consternation but her mind was made up.

Dawn came more quickly than Denna and the girls would have liked, shades of yellow and bright orange breaking through the canopy of trees above them pulled them from a sound sleep –– the bite of the cold morning air leaving them a mess of shivers. For Kahlan, however, it had been long in coming. By the time the others opened their eyes, she had prepared their tea along with bread and cheese to break their fast, saddled the horses, and short of sweeping the forest floor, Kahlan had introduced order to everything around them.

Outside of the heat of battle, she was usually the picture of tranquility, but on this day she was in a state of perpetual motion. Her eye flickered from one object to the next, never stopping long enough to name them, as if pausing for even a second would cause the ground beneath her feet to falter. Sophie motioned at Carina with her chin. The young Mord’Sith nodded and moved to stand by her mother. With a gentle hand on her shoulder, Carina got her mother to sit beside her.

“What’s that all about?” Denna asked Sophie. The interactions between her travel companions fascinated and confused Denna all at once.

Sophie pursed her lips, gazing at Kahlan and her eldest. “When my mother thought my other mother dead, holding my sister in her arms was the one thing that brought her comfort. It was before my birth, but the people of Aydindril still recall the Mother Confessor’s great melancholy at the loss of her Mord’Sith.”

Denna understood why: the young Mord’Sith was the image of Cara, so much so, that at times Denna could not bear to hold her gaze. She was Cara and yet not; Denna welcomed Kahlan’s decision that she be paired with Sophie. That she preferred the company of a Confessor scandalized her but Sophie was keenly intelligent and much less emotional than her sister. Sophie, in Denna’s estimation, was more Mord’Sith than Carina. “A strange breed, these Amnell women,” Denna muttered as she made her way to her steed.

The days that followed were grueling all around. The attack they had prepared for was long in coming, leaving all of them in a constant state of expectancy. Kahlan and Carina traveled on a path parallel to the one on which the other two women traveled, allowing them to catch a glimpse of them as often as the shrubbery would allow. “What do you make of Denna?” Kahlan asked Carina.

The girl thought for a moment. “I think she’d never admit it, but we’re the best thing that ever happened to her.” Kahlan chuckled; Carina’s gift did not lie so much in her ability to read people as it did in her talent for understanding their motivations. “For reasons that have nothing to do with finding Mommy, she needs us.”

 

***

It was four days out, when Kahlan realized they had company again. “Wait here,” she told Carina, and doubled back around to meet the others. “A rider approaching from the west with two more trailing at a short distance,” she said. As she turned to return to Carina, she looked at Denna over her shoulder and said, “Take care of my baby. There’s no telling what I will do to you if you don’t.” Denna smirked, it was a plea with a threat tossed in for good measure –– exactly what Cara would have said; her Sister had trained her Confessor well.

The riders were at least an hour back, giving Kahlan and Carina ample time to set up an ambush. That the woman responsible for all of this would be among them, they did not know, but it was worth a try. Sophie and Denna were to provide back up. Their task was to capture not kill, for what was needed here was information, not a high body count.

Kahlan and Carina slowed their pace, allowing the lead rider and his companions to catch up with them. Unbeknownst to them, Sophie and Denna lingered a short distance behind them on the parallel trail. It wasn’t long before three Confessors had one man each by the throat, and Denna hovered menacingly over a fourth one with her agiel in hand –– no sign of the woman from the south.

“What is your purpose here?” Kahlan asked. These men were different than the others. They carried weapons that did not bear the strange markings that the other ones did –– and they spoke their language.

“Answer the Mother Confessor,” Denna ordered, pressing her agiel to one of the men’s chins.

“Our purpose here is to reason with you,” the man said, in an even tone that revealed no hint of fear or deceit, his eyes fixed on Kahlan’s. “Something was put into motion long ago, an agreement that cannot be broken. Interfering with it will prove to be catastrophic. She no longer belongs to you. Walk away or many more will die, the choice is yours.” He then veered his gaze to where Sophie and Carina stood. That look, Kahlan knew, was every bit a threat.

Kahlan moistened her lips and glared at the man for a long moment. “Keeping me from my wife, I assure you, will be far more catastrophic than anything you can imagine. I will raise armies, I will decimate entire lands to get her back. Even the barrier between realms will not be enough to keep me from her.” Kahlan’s eyes were already black swirls and the crackling of magic filled the air.

“Denna, go,” Sophie said, “put as much distance between us as your legs can bear.” It took her a moment to grasp Sophie’s meaning, but then she turned on her heels and ran at full throttle. Even as she ran, she could feel Kahlan’s magic start to give chase.

But just as Kahlan’s eyes turned into pools of blood, the men slit their own throats. She released a blood-curdling scream that drained the color from her daughters’ faces and left their blood icy-cold. Depleted of all energy and consumed by rage, Kahlan collapsed onto the ground and wept. The girls held her wordlessly. Whatever it was their mothers shared, it was far more powerful than either of them could have ever conceived.

Denna returned to the spot from which she had fled earlier and surveyed the scene. By then Kahlan had somewhat returned to herself, but no one dared speak. Denna and the girls buried the bodies, and built a fire, staring blankly at the flickering flames.

When Kahlan thought herself capable, she rose to her feet and joined the others. “Forgive me,” Kahlan said, her hands resting on her daughters’ shoulders. “Someday, one of us, Cara or perhaps me, will leave this world, I know that to be the truth. It will not, however, be due to some perverse bargain made for the sake of sparing the life of an innocent child.” Her hand went to Carina’s cheek for a moment, and she then pressed Sophie’s hand to her lips. “We leave at dawn, and we bring her home.”

Carina and Sophie had always known that in the Confessors’ Palace, two separate worlds somehow coexisted. There was the one in which they had adoring parents who would give up their very lives to protect them, and there was the one in which Cara and Kahlan lived.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So all kinds of stuff happens in this chapter. Yeah, that's an awful summary...It's been a long day.

“What you are asking of me is ridiculous.” She punctuated the statement with a dismissive wave of her hand. “If you wish me dead so badly, why not run me through with a sword? It would certainly make for a better visual.”

“My mistress has set forth a task for you. You will abide by her orders.” The hulk of a man, with arms as thick as her thighs, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. The knee to his crotch, however, caught him off guard. He found himself writhing in pain as she yanked at the chain attached to the collar around her neck.

“Listen to me, you idiot, tell your dimwitted bitch of a mistress that I am willing to retrieve the object for her but I will do it my way. Her plan will not work –– unless, of course, she has a potion that will make me grow wings.” He paced in front of her with his fists clenched at his sides, making sounds that were more growls than words. It was irrelevant since she had no idea what language he was now speaking.

He pulled back his arm with the intention of striking her for her insolence but before he could manage it, she ducked down as far as the chain would allow and kicked him on the kneecap. His eyes grew wide and he released a high-pitched yelp and hobbled away. For as much as he wanted nothing more than to beat her to a pulp, his mistress needed her in one piece.

“Tell that worthless mistress of yours that Cara Mason sends her regards,” she called out as he walked out of the cave.

The tales of her exploits had garnered her quite a reputation twenty years ago when she’d been captured. She’d quickly become the stuff of legends, and while most of it was at least loosely based on reality, the rest was downright outlandish. It was those tall tales that led to her current predicament. The woman from the south with whom she’d made a bargain to save Carina’s life and have her returned to the Confessor’s Palace, thought Cara to be some brand of supernatural creature. For only the offspring of a mage and a gigantic gar could accomplish the task before her. Cara’s only salvation, the clues she’d left behind for her wife.

Not once in all the years since Kahlan and Richard had rescued her from the camp had Cara believed it would come to this. Still, it was in her nature to prepare for contingencies. On the morning they came for her, she felt a cold breeze enter the Mother Confessor’s bedchamber where they lay in each other’s arms. When she opened her eyes, above Kahlan’s throat hovered a knife –– without a person attached to it. The voice Cara heard –– which existed only in her head –– said, “Pay your debt or watch her die.” Cara needed no explanation. She nodded, got dressed, and scribbled her farewell on a parchment. An invisible hand around her neck forced her out of the Palace and onto the back of a wagon. It was as if the members of the Home Guard had all lost the capacity of sight, for none noticed her presence. Cara hated magic above all else.

***

Kahlan and the others rode hard for almost a week, stopping only when their horses were too tired to continue. As they traveled south the weather became increasingly punishing. Her first trip to the region had been in autumn; this time around it was the height of summer. She and the girls were accustomed to the cold climate of Aydindril, not this scorching heat that drained them of all energy. Denna, however, seemed immune to it. A creature of the arid planes of D’Hara, extreme temperatures were not new to her.

“Well, you three look like wilted flowers,” Denna said with a smirk, watching the others constantly wiping the sweat off their brows. “I see even the miracle child isn’t immune to it.” Carina glared at her but didn’t bother to reply; they had all grown used to Denna’s sarcasm by now.

“Denna, leave my sister alone,” Sophie said, “She has talents that, as of yet, you have not witnessed.” While she was fairly certain Sophie was speaking in jest, she thought it best to refrain from further commentary. With these Amnell women, anything was possible.

Two days later they were within sight of what had years earlier been Cara’s prison. These days it was a marketplace that serviced the citizens of a thriving town, built with the gold the Midlands allotted to those displaced by the barbarians nearly twenty years ago. They were cautious in their approach for they knew that Cara’s captor would more than likely expect them to look for her here.

“We’ll double back around and approach from the east,” Kahlan said, pointing toward a wooded area on the outskirts of the town. “With the Creator’s help, we will find someone there who knows something.” Counting on divine intervention didn’t inspire much confidence in any of them.

The sun was beginning to set when they dismounted their horses and led them to a trough. “Over there,” Carina said, pointing at a figure leaning against a tree. “I can’t be sure, but it looks like a D’Haran soldier.”

“She’s right,” Denna said, with a confident nod.

“Well then, let’s go make his acquaintance.” Kahlan had knowledge of all military operations of both Aydindril’s and D’Hara’s armies. There hadn’t been soldiers from either army deployed to the region in over a decade. When she drew her weapons, the others followed suit.

With as much stealthiness as they could manage, they skulked through the woods until they were directly behind him. Denna took a step toward him, but he swooshed past her like a gust of wind, heading directly toward Kahlan. Carina and Sophie lunged at him but by then he’d dropped onto one knee with a fist to his chest, giving abidance to his Queen. Among them, only Kahlan had ever seen anyone move that swiftly.

She furrowed her brow, studying his features. “Donovan?” she said, urging him to his feet by the forearms. The young man nodded and smiled.

“You know him?” Carina asked, eyeing him suspiciously. Sophie was eyeing him too but her interest was clearly of a different nature.

“I do,” Kahlan said, briefly resting her hand on his cheek, “this is the boy who helped us save your mother. Well, you are still as spry as a hare,” she said, turning to meet his gaze. “I take it your presence here is no accident.”

“No, Mother Confessor, I was given orders by General Mason to look for you here. She said there was a possibility that you and the Princesses would arrive on or near this day. I am to give you this,” he said, handing her a neatly wrapped bundle, “and help you on your current mission.”

Kahlan blinked, and tipped her head. She could clearly see he was telling the truth but his story didn’t make sense. “How did you end up in the D’Haran army?” Young Donovan had a head of tousled red hair and eyes the color of the sea. His features were sharp and well-defined, and his complexion as light as Kahlan’s. This broad-shouldered, muscular soldier, she was completely certain, did not have a drop of Midlands blood flowing through his veins.

“My father, Captain Wells, spoke to General Mason. She approved my request to enlist.” Only those with Midlands blood were allowed to join the army. Cara must have thought highly of the boy if she was willing to bend the rules for him.

Kahlan smiled. “So Captain Wells gave you a home after the camp shut down. He’s a good man; I can see he raised you well.” She knew that on her yearly visits to D’Hara her wife made a point of overseeing the training of young recruits, but that Cara would choose to send an inexperienced foot soldier to aid with her rescue mystified Kahlan. “Did the General say why she choose you for this mission?”

“My knowledge of the region and my gift for speed, Mother Confessor. I’m the fastest man in all of the territories,” he said, with a shrug. “The General said this was a precautionary measure.” The look on the Mother Confessors face, however, suggested this was a far more serious matter. “If troops are needed ––” he started so say but Kahlan waved of the suggestion.

“This is no longer a precautionary measure,” Kahlan said, “this is an attack on the Royal family.” The boy’s lips parted and his eyes widened. “The General was abducted from the Confessors Palace.” Uttering those words caused her to clench her fists at her sides. “From the Confessors Palace,” she repeated, shaking her head as she walked away from him.

“Mom, is everything all right?” Sophie asked. Carina rolled her eyes; her little sister knew full well everything was fine. She just wanted a closer look at the strapping young soldier. When he smiled in her direction, it was all she could do to keep from swooning. Why anyone, let alone her beautiful, intelligent sister, would have any interest in a boy, she could not fathom. Still, she could not deny he was handsome.

“We’re here to find Mommy, not to find you a mate, and besides, you are too young to be looking at boys that way.” Carina put on her sternest scowl and crossed her arms on her chest.

Denna pursed her lips as Sophie glared at Carina for a long moment with her fists clenched at her sides. When the young Confessor took a step to close the distance between them, Denna was certain it would come to blows. Few things in this life were more thrilling than a good fight between a Confessor and a Mord’Sith –– that they were siblings made it all the more exciting.

“Carina,” Sophie said, in her gravest tone, the name sounding every bit like a threat, “I adore you.” Both sisters laughed and slung their arms over each other’s shoulders.

“That’s it?” Denna asked, throwing her arms up in frustration. “What is wrong with you people?”

Kahlan, who had witnessed the entire exchange, shook her head. “You are in for a huge disappointment if you expect to ever witness a squabble between those two.” Denna rolled her eyes and walked back with Donovan to retrieve their horses.

“The General said we are to stay at an establishment located in the town center,” Donovan said, pausing for a moment to look between the women. When his gaze fell on Carina, he ran his trembling hand through his own hair, and held his breath for a beat. “The town…well, they adhere to traditional gender roles.” Sophie and Carina turned to each other with furrowed brows –– neither of them had any inkling as to his meaning. “General Mason… she said the Princess,” his gaze once again falling on Carina, “would not be pleased.”

“First of all, stop staring at me as if I were a gar,” Carina said. “Secondly, don’t be so…cryptic, I don’t like riddles. And third, don’t call me Princess, my name is Carina Mason Rahl Amnell, you can forgo my title. Now clarify yourself.”

Donovan shuffled his feet and took a gigantic step to stand next to Kahlan –– as if his survival depended on his proximity to her. Kahlan sighed, pulling the nervous young man aside in an effort to get meaningful answers from him. The two of them huddled a short distance away with Kahlan nodding repeatedly and looking back at the others. After several minutes, Kahlan straightened her back and firmly gripped his shoulder. They exchanged glances one final time and gave each other a nod.

“Oh, for Spirits’ sake, what is that all about?” Carina huffed, kicking the dirt beneath her boots.

“We’re about to find out,” Denna said, pointing at Kahlan with her chin, as she walked back. Young Donovan was apparently suffering from a temporary paralysis for he did not move a muscle.

“Carina, baby, we need to talk,” Kahlan said in her gentlest tone, running her hand down her daughter’s arm. “Why don’t you two go check on Donovan?” she said to the others, “he’ll explain everything.”

“What is it, Mommy, do you have a special mission for me?” The young Mord’Sith spoke in a solemn tone and gripped her agiels. Just then, the other two burst into a laughter that could be clearly heard even at a distance. Carina turned to them and furrowed her brow, while Kahlan rolled her eyes; Sophie was in for a lecture.

Kahlan put her arm around her eldest’s shoulders and explained what was required of her. “What?” Carina asked in a yelp that reverberated through the forest. “Mommy, no. You promised I would never have to again.”

“I know I did, baby, but I could not have foreseen these circumstances.” Her teenage daughter had reverted to the five-year-old version of herself, and while it unnerved Kahlan, she took a breath and patiently comforted her. “Carina, not once have any of your parents broken a promise to either you or your sister. You know I have no choice but to ask this of you.”

Carina gave her mother her most dejected look –– slumped shoulders and all. “I’ll do it,” she said, with her arms hanging at her sides and her chin on her chest. Kahlan signaled for the others –– Donovan lingering behind at a safe distance. Carina glared at him; in her estimation this was all his fault for the contents of the package he delivered were the source of her misery.

“Denna,” Kahlan said, “We’ll have to find something for you.”

The Mord’Sith smirked. “No need, I have one in my pack. Much like the miracle child, I have a rather unique skill set.” Having heard plenty of stories about Denna from both Richard and Cara, Kahlan required no further explanation.

“Go,” she said, “I’m fine as I am.” Denna, Carina, and Sophie disappeared into the forest.

Donovan plunked down next to her, and said, “I don’t think the Princess likes me very much.”

Kahlan chuckled and patted him on the back. “It isn’t you that she doesn’t like. Carina hasn’t worn a dress since her Confessor’s Ceremony when she was five, and even then, it took no small amount of coercion.”

The three of them returned a half hour later, Denna wearing a white satin gown with an obscenely low-cut back; Sophie, who definitely took after Kahlan, was showing far more cleavage than her mother had realized she had; Carina, the last to emerge, looked every bit like a beautiful Princess –– albeit at the moment a rather ill-tempered one. Understandably, young Donovan’s eyes were glued to the hypnotic sway of Denna’s hips. He thought it a safer choice than to dare glance at either of the Amnell girls. Still, in an effort to break him from his trance, Carina delivered a hard elbow to his ribcage.

Given their attire, Donovan thought it best to secure a carriage for the ladies and make arrangements for their accommodations. He made a small fire before he left, promising to be back as soon as possible. Given Carina’s foul mood, silence prevailed until Kahlan finally had enough of her eldest’s pouting.

“Your mother wore a dress once, you know.” The other three shot her a skeptical look –– Denna in particular. “It’s true,” she said emphatically. “It was during our quest to find the Stone of Tears. An evil lord in cahoots with the Sisters of the Dark abducted me and locked me in a spelled castle in which I was left without the use of my magic. Zedd and your father concocted a plan to free me that required that your mother wear a pink princess dress, and a tiara no less.”

“Mom in a pink princess dress,” Sophie said wide-eyed and grinning.

“Yes,” Kahlan said with a nod, “don’t tell her this, but I still have it in my wardrobe. She took my breath away in that dress; I could not bear to part with it. The sight of her in a sword fight, wearing a dress to rescue me…,” she trailed off for a moment. “Spirits, how I love that woman.” The vulnerable tremble in her voice dissolved Carina’s anger. She edged closer and rested her head on Kahlan’s shoulder.

“So your family has a history of this sort of problem,” Denna said, pinching her chin between her index finger and thumb.

“What?” Kahlan said, “No, we certainly do not.”

“Let’s see, there was that time Richard got abducted by, well, me; there was also the time he was taken by the Sisters of the Dark; you were kidnapped by that evil lord; Cara was held and thought dead at the prison camp; now she’s missing again; oh, there was that unfortunate situation with me and the Wizard.”

Sophie tipped her head and shrugged. “Denna has a point.”

“Didn’t Darken Rahl also take Cara so he could break her with a spelled agiel?” she asked.

“No,” Kahlan said, raising her index finger for emphasis, “technically, that wasn’t an abduction; it was more of an ambush.”

“I see,” Denna said, with a smirk.

“And besides, my family is in a dangerous line of work. These things are bound to happen.”

“If you say so,” Denna said.

“Yes, we say so,” Carina said, speaking out for her family’s honor. “And technically, you are our hostage so apparently you too are plagued by these sorts of problems.”

Donovan’s arrival in the carriage put an end to their banter. He loaded their packs onto the carriage, tied the horses’ leads to it, and helped the ladies into the carriage –– Carina gave him a death glare but accepted his offered hand.

“This is it,” Donovan said, taking leave of them after walking them inside so that he could look after the horses.

It was an upscale establishment the likes of which was rarely seen this far away from a major city. Their quarters occupied the entire top floor of the building, with a balcony that spanned the width of the east side of the structure, providing an unobscured view for leagues. It had two large bedchambers, and a bath chamber with a pipe that brought running water up to their chambers. Already the gears were turning in Kahlan’s head: Cara’s choice of this establishment had undoubtedly been deliberate –– and surely not chosen simply for its luxury. Strategically, the place was genius, that much was obvious. From that vantage point, Sophie could surely hit any target, but there had to be more to it than that, if Cara had sent them here.

“Mom, are you coming down for dinner?” Sophie asked.

Lost in her own thoughts, it took Kahlan a moment to register her question. “I’ll be down in a bit,” she said. “You three stay out of trouble.” Denna scowled at being placed in the same category with the two teenagers but her appetite outweighed her indignation.

***

Three beautiful women walking into the dining area –– without a man –– turned plenty of heads. Denna instinctively worked the room; using male attention to her advantage was an art she’d mastered at a young age. The years had, if anything, added to her appeal. Without either of their mothers at their side, the girls felt more than a little uncomfortable. They had, of course, attended countless functions in both Aydindril and D’Hara, but always with at least one of their parents with them.

It wasn’t long before a gentleman had a bottle of wine sent to their table. Denna delivered an appreciative nod that he interpreted as an invitation, walking over to introduce himself. It was all going well until his gaze dropped to Sophie’s ample cleavage, ignoring the fact that she was obviously still a girl. When his hand moved to the bare skin on her shoulder, Carina was on her feet with an outstretched hand in the direction of his throat.

Denna stepped in, defusing the situation before it got out of hand. “I would think a handsome man such as yourself would prefer the company of a woman to that of a child,” Denna said, leaning in so close that they were breathing the same breath. His hand went to her hip just as young Donovan walked in. Still standing a hairsbreadth away from the man –– her fingertips tracing circles on his chest –– without taking her eyes off the man, Denna stretched out her other arm, and in her most seductive tone, said, “Donovan, this swine touched the Princess.” The boy parted his lips, grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck and dragged him outside. Protecting members of the Rahl family was the primary responsibility of every D’Haran soldier.

Carina turned to follow them but Denna stopped her a second time. “Pick your battles, little girl,” she said, “one drunken idiot is not worth your time, and certainly not worth your mother’s life.”

Carina shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “She’s my little sister. It’s my responsibility to take care of her.”

“Nothing happened,” Sophie said, guiding her sister back to the table. “Denna’s right, we’re here to get our mother back.”

“Thank you,” Carina said to young Donovan when he walked back inside. He nodded and grinned at being acknowledged by her. “I expect you taught him some manners?” His fist promptly went to his chest.

As she walked down the stairs, Kahlan immediately noticed the tension. “Did something happen?” she asked, looking between Denna and the girls.

“Not a thing,” Denna said. “Your eldest is just more like Cara than I thought.” She paused for a long moment, then added, “Or perhaps she’s who Cara would have been had she not been broken.” While the remark struck her as odd, Kahlan decided to address it after dinner.

The Amnell girls weren’t at all what Denna expected when all of this started. Kahlan and Cara’s girls were mature and intelligent, but their parents had also managed to keep them young somehow. Everything about them spoke of innocence –– the type of innocence that Mord’Sith training sought to obliterate. For a brief moment, it occurred to Denna that she would willingly give up her own life to protect that part of them –– the very part she’d taken from Cara. She shook her head and chuckled –– life had come full circle. “Leave it to Cara,” she said in a small voice, muffled by the sounds around them.

“So what happened at dinner?” Kahlan asked when they went back upstairs.

“An old pervert made an inappropriate advance at Sophie,” Carina said.

Denna rolled her eyes. “By old, she means our age,” she said to Kahlan.

“It was nothing, Mom, Donovan took care of it. He’s very dashing and brave,” Sophie said, releasing a breathy sigh.

“Donovan did not take care of it,” Carina said, throwing her arms up in frustration. “Denna stopped me from snapping his neck in half. She opted for a more diplomatic approach. You have to do something, Mommy, her…” she trailed off gesturing at Sophie’s breasts. “They’re getting too big.” Her little sister gave her a shove that knocked her off the bed. “Oh, you are going to pay for that,” Carina said, suppressing a grin.

“Enough,” Kahlan said. Both girls promptly straightened up and gave her their full attention. “I may have discovered why we are here.” She unscrewed the top of one of the bedposts and from it she produced a spyglass. “Look through it,” she said, handing it to Sophie.

“It’s too dark. I can’t make anything out.”

“Turn the ring just below the eyepiece.” Upon following Kahlan’s instruction, Sophie pressed the spyglass to her eye a second time. “What do you see now?”

“It’s - it’s broad daylight,” Sophie said, turning to her mother.

Denna shook her head and sighed, parting her lips to speak, but her travel companions were too quick for her. “‘Leave it to Cara,’” Kahlan, Carina, and Sophie said in unison. “We know.”

The Mord’Sith glared at them, then took the device from Sophie’s hand and looked through it herself. “Remarkable,” she said, handing it back to Kahlan.

“Sophie, the inscription etched on the side, do you know what it says?” her mother asked.

She furrowed her brow and studied it for a long moment. “No, I’ve never seen that script before. But…the inscription, it looks as if it was recently carved.”

“She’s right,” Denna said, taking a closer look at the object.

Kahlan smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her youngest’s ear. “Thank you, baby. You two get ready for bed.” Kahlan gave each of her girls a hug and a kiss on the forehead.

“Mommy, can I sleep with you?” Carina asked. Her mother nodded. She knew her eldest was doing it for the sake of comforting her and on this night it was more than welcomed.

“Denna,” Kahlan said, when the two of them were alone, “the girls are smart and they are strong but if anything were to happen to me before we find Cara, I ––” Denna cut her off before she could finish.

“I will get them back to Aydindril safely,” Denna said, with a steely determination that left no room for doubt. “But it’s unlikely that it will come to that. You and Cara are difficult to kill. Trust me, I’ve tried –– multiple times.”

Kahlan laughed, and said, “Yes, you have.”

While the others fell into a sound sleep as soon as their heads met the pillow, Kahlan spent most of the night by the window, looking through the spyglass. Cara was out there somewhere –– without her. Together they were a force of nature, fierce and unstoppable, but like this she felt small and lost and she knew Cara was feeling it, too. She took a deep a breath and walked to the nightstand to pick up her daggers. For the rest of the night, she calmly dragged a sharpening stone along the edges of each of her weapons, losing herself in the rhythmic sound it produced. These were the weapons she was going to use to eviscerate the person who did this to her family.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, some of the details of what Cara had to endure at the camp for the sake of bringing Carina into this world come to light –– and they aren't pretty. Denna holds back information for surprisingly noble motives. Oh and we find out the identity of the people who delivered baby Carina to the Confessors Palace.

As per Kahlan’s orders, Donovan had a maid bring up their morning meal a little after sunrise. By the time Denna and the girls were dressed, Kahlan had laid out the various items Cara had left as clues for them along the way. The spyglass, given its unique attribute, served an obvious purpose but there was still the coin and the odd device with the numbers. Her major source of consternation, however, was the mystery as to how exactly the spyglass wound up in their room. Cara, she knew with complete certainty, had not traveled back to this region since she and Richard had rescued her from the prison camp.

“None of this makes any sense,” she said, her fist pounding on the table. “We did not haphazardly come across this thing.” None of her travel companions dared interject. On this morning, the Mother Confessor was in no mood for idle words of comfort; what she needed was answers –– and not cryptic ones. “Carina, fetch Donovan.” Her eldest gave her a quick nod and was on her way. “Sophie, as unreasonable as this may sound, I need you to somehow discern the inscription on the spyglass.” Sophie’s lips parted and remained that way for several seconds. “And you, Denna, you are the only one of us who has spent time in this land. Thus far on this journey, you have proven to be useful and, dare I say, trustworthy, but you know something, Denna, I can feel it down to my very bones.” Denna started to speak in her own defense but the Mother Confessor would not allow it. “You’ve fought by our side and I have no doubt you’ve grown fond of my girls.” Sophie, who sat just a few paces a way, knew what came next. “I don’t want to do it, but by the Creator, even if it’s with your last breath, I will have my answers. Carina will be back any moment now. Lying will not serve you.”

Denna smirked and shook her head. “There’s no getting past the miracle child, is there?”

“No, there isn’t.” Just as the words left Kahlan’s lips, Carina and Donovan walked in the door. With a deep intake of air, Denna met Sophie’s gaze for a moment, then looked back at Kahlan.

“I’ve seen that device before,” she said, pointing at it with her chin. “Confess me if you’d like, but I will not say another word in front of them.” Denna wasn’t sure when exactly she’d developed a noble streak, but there it was.

Her face gave up nothing. Still, the determination with which she spoke sufficed to make Kahlan agree to her terms. “Go,” she said to the others. Her daughters knew better than to question her. Once they were alone, Kahlan rose to her feet and walked around the table to sit beside her. “Denna, the time for games is over. I may not have my daughter’s gift for reading Mord’Sith but if I even suspect you are lying to me, I’ll do what I must to get my answers.”

“You will not like what I have to say, and there was no need for your children to learn of such things. That spyglass belonged to one of the barbarians who ran the camp. He kept it tucked in his belt; I saw it many times, but I did not know that there was anything extraordinary about it until last night. There was an altercation of some sort at the camp. It happened before I learned that Cara was there. It had to do with a woman, a prisoner, one of the more attractive ones, or so I heard. It wasn’t unusual for the guards to require favors from female prisoners in exchange for food. Other than scraps that even rats were reluctant to eat, they had nothing. Two days after he took his pleasure from her, he was found dead. There wasn’t so much as a scratch on his body. Only a Mord’Sith could kill a man with her bare hands without leaving a trace of trauma.” Kahlan shut her eyes, her face losing all color. “For what it’s worth, Cara would have died before being anyone’s whore. Whatever she did, she did for the sake of the child.”

They sat in silence for almost a half hour. Kahlan had been at the camp, she’d seen the condition in which the prisoners lived, but somehow she’d never allowed herself to consider what exactly it took for her wife to carry Carina to term. Their daughter was born in perfect health; the price for it was Cara’s dignity. As they sat there, Denna studied Kahlan’s face, taking in every detail of it as it transformed from naked vulnerability and pain to a stone-hard expression of pure determination. For the first time, after years of turning it over in her head, Denna understood why Darken Rahl, and Richard, and even the agiel spelled by the Sisters of the Dark had failed to come between the Mother Confessor of the Midlands and her Mord’Sith. Kahlan Amnell and Cara Mason were both alchemists: they transmuted every adversity into pure strength.

Kahlan swallowed her emotions whole and returned her focus to the task at hand. “That doesn’t explain how it came to be here,” Kahlan said.

“Unless Cara kept it after she killed him,” Denna said. “Your wife always possessed the gift of foresight. If she discovered its special attribute which, knowing Cara, she certainly did, she would have held onto it for future use.”

“No, she didn’t have it with her when Richard and I rescued her from the camp, and this place,” she said, waving her arms, “hadn’t been built yet.” Kahlan paused for a long moment. “There’s another player in this game. The question is whether he is friend or foe. The answer is within these walls, I’m certain of it.”

“Mom,” Sophie said, bursting through the door with Carina and Donovan on her heels, “I know what it says. The inscription, I know what it says.”

Denna and Kahlan nearly fell off their chairs due to the dramatic entrance. “Was subtlety not part of your training?” The former Mord’Sith said with a scowl.

Ignoring the remark, Sophie plowed on. “I was looking at it wrong. It was carved as a mirror image.”

“What does it say?” Kahlan asked.

“‘Your kindness has not been forgotten.’ It’s written in an ancient high D’Haran script, from before the division of the realms. I learned it from a book in Father’s library.”

Kahlan and Denna turned to each other. “Friend, then,” Kahlan said. Denna tipped her head in agreement.

“You are so smart,” Kahlan said throwing her arms around her daughter’s neck and kissing her temple.

“What now?” Carina asked.

Kahlan thought for a long moment, then said, “Now we socialize. Let us find out the identity of our benefactor.”

Donovan timidly raised his hand. “There will be a ball at the dining hall this evening, I saw a sign downstairs. I could escort the Princess,” he said, gazing at Carina. The young Mord’Sith scrunched her face while her little sister pouted.

“That won’t be necessary, Donovan, but thank you for offering.” Kahlan gave him a supportive smile, already suspecting she was going to have to have a talk with him in the near future. “We will, however, need you to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious.” Donovan’s fist went to his chest before he went back downstairs.

“What is wrong with him?” Carina mumbled, shaking her head.

Since Kahlan had only her travel dress, they were forced to visit a nearby dress shop. The Mother Confessor chose a blue gown, while her youngest fell in love with a pink gown that she did not need. Still, her mother indulged her. Carina rolled her eyes and reached for a red dress. In her estimation, it was an improvement over the other one. While this was a long shot at best, it was all they had at the moment.

Later that evening, the four of them walked into the ball together, turning every head, male and female. While there were many attractive women in the room, none carried themselves like the Mother Confessor of the Midlands and her companions. “Someone here left the spyglass for us to find,” Kahlan said, “Identifying that person puts us one step closer to finding Cara.”

The ball was an elegant affair. All of the servers wore matching uniforms that included head coverings and neckties. There was a quartet of string musicians, along with a flutist and lone vocalist.

A woman met them at the bottom of the stairs and pointed them to a table. Ever the strategist, Kahlan smiled and gestured toward a table across the room –– it allowed for a view of the entire hall and access to all the exits. “We would prefer that table.” The woman nodded.

Sophie and Denna both found dance partners while Kahlan chatted with various patrons –– Carina never leaving her mother’s side. “Mistress, a word,” Donovan said. Kahlan had instructed him to not use her title.

“Yes, of course,” Kahlan replied, gesturing for him to take a seat next to her and Carina.

“That server standing by the kitchen entrance, he hasn’t taken his eyes off the Princess, nor have I seen him carry a single dish.” His gaze fell on Carina who promptly gave the server in question a quick glance.

Carina blinked and turn toward her mother. “He’s beautiful,” Carina said, an adjective her mother had never heard her use in relation to a boy. “Too beautiful. Look at those lashes, and those delicate hands: that is no boy.”

“Should I apprehend her?” Donovan asked, eyeing the server as if he, or perhaps she, were a big hairy gar.

“Cross-dressing and staring at a pretty girl are not exactly evidence of ill intents. Let’s not rush to judgment just yet,” Kahlan said. She then shot Sophie and Denna a meaningful look, indicating that they should return to the table.

“What is it?” Denna asked, after taking leave of the man with whom she’d danced for most of the evening. “With my business left to crumble in the hands of underlings, I may have to resort to finding a husband.” She looked over at her former dance partner and shuddered a bit. “Or perhaps not.”

“There is a server by the kitchen entrance –– try not to be obvious –– he may be our benefactor,” Kahlan said.

Sophie, who was known for her keen powers of observation, narrowed her eyes for a moment. “That server is…our chambermaid. She delivered our morning meal while you were talking to Denna; I opened the door for her. Either that or she has a brother with the same face.”

“If that’s the case, she had access to our room. She could have placed the spyglass in the bedpost while she was tending to it,” Denna said, doing her best to be discreet.

Kahlan took a deep breath and rose to her feet. “I think it’s time we had a talk with our androgynous young friend.” When the four of them walked across the room, it was as if the seas parted. Gentleman bowed and women whispered –– regardless of geography, Kahlan still commanded respect.

The server in question glanced over at the door but Donovan took a step to stand in front of it. Kahlan tipped her head, delivering her most serene smile. “Good evening,” she said, “my companions and I would like a word with you, if you don’t mind.”

The young server swallowed hard and scanned the room for a way out, then nodded politely. Kahlan took hold of the server by the elbow and the five of them walked up to the room. “We have no intention of hurting you,” Kahlan said. “We just want to talk to you.”

“I’m not a coward,” the server said, defiantly removing the hair covering to reveal a head of flowing dark waves cascading down her back, almost reaching her waist. “Nor have I done anything wrong.”

“We are not accusing you of any crime,” Kahlan said. “You took great interest in my eldest daughter earlier. Why?”

The girl moistened her lips and looked over at Carina. “I have an appreciation for beautiful women,” she said with a smirk.

“What are you called?” Kahlan asked, her tone now more demanding.

“My name is Lucia,” she said, meeting Kahlan’s gaze.

“I haven’t time for games, Lucia. The person I hold most precious in this life is missing. I have reason to believe you left an object in this room, an object that had previously been in her possession.” The girl parted her lips to speak but Kahlan stopped her. “If you lie to me, the price you will pay is far greater than you think.”

The girl blinked and turned to look at Carina for a brief moment then back at Kahlan. “You're the Mother Confessor,” Lucia said, as if a huge realization just dawned upon her. “And you,” she said, staring at Carina as if she were a divine apparition. “You are the child the Great Warrior bore at the camp.”

“Yes, Lucia, that’s right,” Kahlan said in a calm, even tone. “My wife, the Great Warrior, as you call her, gave birth to Carina while she was being held by the barbarians.”

Lucia reached out her hand and placed it on Carina’s cheek for a long moment. “You look so much like her.”

Kahlan walked over to the nightstand and picked up the spyglass. “Did you place this in the bedpost?” The girl nodded in response. “Why?” Kahlan asked.

“When I saw her, I thought she was the Great Warrior. She looked exactly as I remembered her so I put it in the bedpost for her,” Lucia explained.

Denna squeezed the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb. “Can you start from the beginning? This tale is making me dizzy.”

“Denna is right,” Kahlan said.

“I was in my fourth summer when our village was attacked. My mother and sister were killed, my father and I taken to the camp. We were thrown into a cell along with dozens of others. The smell of death and cries for help were a constant. Two days after we got there, a guard tried to tear me out of my father’s arms. The Great Warrior, who was chained to the back of the cell, somehow managed to strike him. She then grabbed him by the throat and told him that if he dared touch me again, she’d rip his head off his shoulders.

“The first time she escaped, she managed to unlock a dozen cells on our block. Prisoners ran in every direction – some were killed, others got away. They came after us on horseback, trampling children, and running them through with swords. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. When she looked back over her shoulder and saw what was happening, she knocked one of the guards off his horse and took his weapon. The Great Warrior downed man after man to save the rest of us. But then they swarmed her; it took at least fifty men to take her down. When they tossed her back in the cell, we all thought her dead but she wasn’t. As soon as her wounds healed, she planned a second escape. That time she fashioned a bow and arrow out of bones of a rotting corpse and set the guardhouse alight. She’d had us dig a tunnel in the back of our cell. The fire was to serve as a distraction but one of the prisoners betrayed us for the sake of a hot meal. When the prisoners crawled out, they were beaten to death.

“It was a few weeks later that the Great Warrior realized she was with child. She told my father the child she was carrying was a miracle, a gift from the Creator that could not be lost to this world. She dug up worms for nourishment, traded favors with guards and prisoners alike. Your mother fought to bring you into to this world,” she said, turning to look at Carina who sat next Kahlan resting her head on her mother’s shoulder.

“You were born in the early morning hours of an autumn day. My father and an old woman held at the camp helped you come into this world. I was too young to understand some of the details but something happened, an arrangement was made, and much like you,” she said, speaking to Carina directly, “I live because of it.”

Kahlan furrowed her brow. “How was your fate tied to Carina’s?” she asked.

“Again, I don’t know the details but it involved getting the child back to the great city of the north, Aydindril, where she was to be delivered to the Mother Confessor of the Midlands. The Great Warrior agreed to the bargain with the stipulation that my father and I deliver the child to the Palace. She trusted no one else with the task. When we arrived, my father rang the bell at the gate and asked for bread for a hungry traveler and his daughter. Little did the guard know that in the basket my father carried lay a sleeping infant. While he fetched us a meal, my father placed the basket in the stable with a note scribbled on a parchment.”

“What of the spyglass?” Denna asked.

“The night we were to leave for Aydindril, the Great Warrior gave it to me. She said I was to take good care of it until we met again. Looking back, I think she did it to comfort me. I was trembling with fear as my father lifted me onto the horse. Still, I promised myself that I would not part with it until I returned it to her. In all these years, it had never left my side, but when I saw you at the inn, I was certain you were the Great Warrior. You even walk like her.”

While the girl told a riveting tale, most of which coincided with what they already knew, Kahlan still had her doubts. “But why were you in disguise?” Kahlan asked.

“Disguise?”

“Yes, you were dressed like a man at the ball.”

Lucia smirked and shrugged. “Servers earn more than chambermaids, so I do both. Besides, it makes life more interesting.” Kahlan had no idea what to make of that last part, but she was being truthful.

“You’re drooling,” Sophie leaned in and whispered into her sister’s ear. Carina gave her a gentle shove but didn’t deny it.

“Thank you, Lucia, you’ve been very helpful,” Kahlan said, leading the girl to the door.

“If the Great Warrior is in danger, I want to help,” she said, turning to meet Kahlan’s gaze.

“I cannot ask you to risk your life for the sake my family.”

“You’re not asking, I’m offering,” the girl replied. “I know this territory better than anyone. If you need answers, I know who to ask; if you need help, I know who to trust.”

Kahlan thought for a moment before answering. “I’ll have to discuss it with my companions. Will you give us a moment?” The girl gave her a confident nod.

“She was telling the truth,” Sophie said, “maybe she can help us.”

“Sophie is right,” Carina blurted out with a little too much enthusiasm, earning herself a disapproving look from her mother. “I – if she knows the territory…” Carina sheepishly edged over to stand by her sister, thinking it best to stop talking.

For the sake of succinctness, Denna asked, “Can you handle a weapon?”

“A sword, yes.”

“Well then, know that if you make one wrong move, the miracle child over there can kill you for days in more ways than you can count, the angelic-looking one will steal your free will and eviscerate you with the daggers she keeps in her garters, and their mother, well there’s no telling what she’ll do to you. Now the person you should really worry about is me. I taught the Great Warrior everything she knows, and furthermore, I’m not averse to killing for sport. In fact, I rather enjoy it.”

The girl grimaced and looked to the others; none of them contradicted Denna’s statement. She shrugged, and said, “Fair enough.”

With a tilt of her head, Kahlan sealed the deal. “Very well, we accept your offer.”

“Mother Confessor,” Donovan chimed in, “will the young…person be staying with you and the Princesses?”

“‘Princesses?’” Lucia echoed with a derisive chuckle.

“Yes, miss,” Donovan replied helpfully. “Princess Carina Mason Rahl Amnell, first in line for the thrones of D’Hara, Galea, and Kelton, and future Commander of the D’Haran and Aydindril armies,” he said gesturing with his hand toward Carina. “And Princess Sophie Rahl Amnell, second in line for the three thrones, next First Chair of the Central Council, and more than likely, the next Mother Confessor of the Midlands.”

Carina rolled her eyes. “Does my father make all his soldiers memorize that?”

Donovan nodded. “Yes, Princess.” Carina shook her head. Her parents clearly took delight in embarrassing her.

“Will you be staying?” Kahlan asked Lucia, releasing a sigh.

“No,” she said, “I have a room downstairs with the rest of the staff here.”

“Very well,” Kahlan said. “Donovan, please escort the young lady to her quarters.” Donovan’s fist went to his chest, causing Lucia to have to repress her amusement. “Let us reconvene here at dawn.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where to begin... tons of new information comes to light in this chapter. We'll meet Lucia's father who will add some more details as to the circumstances of Carina's birth, along with some clues as to the challenges that lie ahead. We'll get a glimpse of just how smart Sophie is. Oh, and Denna and Kahlan visit an LGBT tavern –– no, it's not a date!

The next morning, as agreed, Lucia returned to their quarters, only she brought with her an unexpected guest. It was a tall man with striking features and piercing gray eyes that were the identical twins of her own. He wore a pair of brown trousers, work boots, and a simple white shirt, yet his stature and the fluidity of his movements gave him an air of dignity and elegance that Kahlan had only ever seen in scholars and high-ranking officials. His calloused hands and freckled skin, however, spoke of long hours under the sun working the land.

“This is my father, Omar Anders,” Lucia said, standing beside him with her fingers interlaced with his.

“Mother Confessor,” he said, in a deep, thundering voice that matched his stature. “It is an honor to be in your presence.” He bowed his head, hesitating to meet her gaze.

Kahlan’s warm smile, however, eased his discomfort. “Sit, please,” she said, “These are my daughters, and this is Denna, a…friend of the family.” Denna smirked at that last part.

As expected, his gaze fell upon Carina and stayed there for a long moment. “This tired face greeted you upon entering this world,” he said, the corners of his mouth lifting into a hint of a smile. “You were a beautiful child and now a beautiful young woman.”

Carina swallowed hard and nodded. “Thank you for what you did for me,” she said.

“Why don’t you girls see to our morning meal so that Denna and I can talk with Mr. Anders? Oh, and be sure to fetch Donovan.” Carina and Sophie nodded, walking out with Lucia behind them.

“Mr. Anders, thank you for coming. I trust Lucia explained our situation,” Kahlan said.

“Call me Omar, please, and yes she did. I don’t know that I can help you,” he said. “I am not a man of arms, but for the Great Warrior, I will do whatever you ask of me.” Denna shook her head. Her former Sister had somehow managed to become a legend. It was all she could do to repress the urge to repeat the confounding phrase that was constantly leaving her lips of late.

“What I need is information, Omar. My wife’s disappearance has to do with the prison camp. A woman, from the Old World I’ve been told, is responsible. Do you have any recollection of someone, anyone, who was different, out of place in some way?”

Omar hesitated for a moment, looking between Kahlan and Denna. “I recall your friend,” he said, gesturing toward Denna. “She visited a few times.” Denna held her head up high and straightened her back. She would not regret her past nor would she be shamed by a farmer. After a long moment he added, “But there was someone else as well, yes. I know nothing of the Old World but there were rumors of a woman who had crossed the Great Divide that separates the realms to avenge a loss. One of the prisoners on our cell block told a tale of a woman whose wealth surpassed that of entire empires. It was said that she was in search of a warrior to defeat the beast that swallowed the moon.

”Kahlan furrowed her brow. “‘The beast that swallowed the moon,’” she repeated with no small amount of skepticism.

“It is a folktale among our people. A creature so large and so fierce that it took an entire generation of men to free the moon from its belly. It has wings that span nearly a league and claws and teeth of steel. Some say it now lives in the depths of a cave that lies between the realms, on one side of it, space, on the other, time.” 

Denna glared at him as if he were a two-headed gar. “And you believe that such a beast exists?” she said.

“I don’t believe or disbelieve. I am a simple man with enough sense to know that I know not.” He looked over at Kahlan and said, “But if the tale is true, the spyglass will serve you well. The creature is said to be completely blind in the dark.”

“Thank you very much, Omar. If need be, may I call on you again?” Kahlan asked.

“Yes, of course, Mother Confessor.”

Denna waited for Omar to take leave of them before she rolled her eyes, and said, “Well, that was a waste of time.”

Kahlan, for her part, was not as quick to dismiss his claim. Omar’s description of the enormous creature, clearly, contained a generous amount of hyperbole but something about this folktale of his was vaguely familiar. “Perhaps,” Kahlan said, earning herself a scowl from Denna. “Let’s go break our fast with the girls.”

***

“Oh, Spirits,” Kahlan said with a sigh from where she stood at the bottom of the stairs. Sophie was lovingly gazing at Donovan, while Donovan was staring at Carina like a lovelorn schoolboy, and Carina appeared to be in a hypnotic trance induced by the tops of Lucia’s breasts. “My wife is missing and my children seem to be in the midst of a hormonal explosion.”

“Teenagers,” Denna said with a shrug.

Kahlan’s arms were crossed over her chest, and she cleared her throat emphatically as she glared between them. Needless to say, their mother’s obvious consternation promptly caused them to regain their focus. Young Donovan was quick to his feet, pulling out a chair for his Queen, and bowing his head. Her daughters finished their meal, staring down at their plates without saying a word. Denna did her best to conceal her amusement at the side glances both girls chanced in their mother’s direction every few minutes. Even the Lord Rahl did not command that much respect from his Mord’Sith.

It was once their plates were empty that Kahlan finally broke the silence. “Sophie, Mr. Anders spoke of a mythical creature in this region that makes its home in a cave. Do you have any knowledge of it?” Her daughter furrowed her brow for a long moment. Throughout her childhood, Sophie had taken an interest in all sorts of folktales and myths.  
“The Minokawa,” Lucia blurted out, “children made up rhymes about it but no one has ever seen one.”

“All myths are based on reality,” Sophie said. “And yes, I have read about the Minokawa. Grandfather has a book at the Keep with detailed descriptions of thousands of creatures. I remember this one because it is said to have swallowed the moon.”

“Here we go with this swallowing of the moon nonsense again,” Denna said with an exaggerated sigh.

“Not such nonsense when you consider that all historical mentions of the creature match the period of the Great Eclipse,” she said. “It was even mentioned by Mother Confessor Magna in her third volume of Astronomical Anomalies –– page 313, fourth paragraph. The eclipse lasted for one hundred years.” All of those at the table gazed at her in awe.

“I keep telling you she’s a genius,” Carina said, looking over at her mother.

“Clearly,” Denna said, then turned to meet Kahlan’s gaze. “And you claim Richard fathered this one?”

Kahlan covered her mouth to hide her amusement. “Yes, he did.”

“Hard to believe,” Denna said under her breath.

“How did it end?” Kahlan asked, Sophie.

“According to the myth, thousands upon thousands of villagers battled the creature. One of them managed to cut open its belly, thereby freeing the moon from captivity.”

“Question,” Carina said. “What does any of this have to do with getting Mommy back?”

“‘Mommy’?” Lucia echoed, “You call the Great Warrior ‘Mommy’?” Carina shrugged but said nothing.

“Mr. Anders said that one of the prisoners mentioned a woman who was looking for a warrior to defeat a fierce beast.” Kahlan took a deep breath and rose to her feet. “If this Minokawa is what stands between me and my wife, its days are numbered.”

“You have heard the expression, ‘plenty of fish in the sea’?” Denna asked, earning herself murderous glares from all three Confessors. “What? Finding a new wife would be far easier than killing a moon-eating beast.” The others, however, were unmoved by her logic. “Fine,” she said, raising her palms in a gesture of surrender.

“Legend has it that the creature eventually became the guardian of the realms beyond the Great Divide.”

“Do you know anything more, baby?” Kahlan asked, resting her hands on her daughter’s shoulders.

“I don’t,” she said, leaning into her mother for an embrace.

“Mother Confessor,” Lucia said, “may I have a word with you?” The others looked among themselves, surprised by the request.

“Of course,” Kahlan said, walking into the other room with the girl.

“What do you think that’s all about?” Sophie asked Carina.

Carina smirked and put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Clearly, she’s asking Mommy’s permission to woo me.” Sophie rolled her eyes and shoved her away. “What? It could happen.”

Once they were alone, it took Lucia a moment to find her voice. "My parents, before the attack on our village, were both renowned scholars. Losing my mother and my sister was too much for my father. To survive it, he had to say goodbye to that life. Out of despair, he turned to the land. His library, although never visited again, survived the attacks. If there is any information to be had, that is where you will find it.”

Kahlan gripped her forearm, and asked, “Do you think any of it would be of use to us?”

Lucia hesitated to answer. “I am too young to have any recollection of those days and my father will not speak of the past –– he can’t –– but I’ve been told by others that my parents were the foremost authority on all things related to this region, including the Great Divide.”

Kahlan stood before the girl in silence for a long moment. She was all too familiar with the heartache Mr. Anders experienced at the loss of his wife. Thinking Cara dead all those years ago had taken her to a place so dark it nearly cost Kahlan her life. Coupled with the loss of a child, she was doubtful that she would have lived through it. To ask this man who had only survived his ordeal by abandoning his former life felt wrong in every imaginable way, but with Cara’s life at stake, she hadn’t a choice. “Do you think your father will agree to it?” Kahlan asked.

Lucia tipped her head, chewing on her lower lip. “In my twenty-two summers on this earth, my father has refused me nothing. If I ask him, he will agree to it.”

The thought of such manipulation filled Kahlan with shame. “Spirits, I know it would be wrong of me to ask such a thing of you, but…” She trailed off covering her face with her hands.

“My father would never forgive himself if the Great Warrior, or anyone for that matter, were to die because he could not face the past,” Lucia said.

“Thank you for saying that,” Kahlan said, pulling Lucia into a light embrace. But if Kahlan were to be honest with herself, if Mr. Anders were to refuse, she was prepared to gain access by any means necessary. “What is the travel time to your father’s home?”

“Just over two hours.”

“Give us a few minutes to get ready,” Kahlan said.

“Denna, Carina, take your leathers with you. Sophie, change into your traveling dress. We’re leaving.” Kahlan’s expression did not leave room for questions. “Oh, and one of you have Donovan ready the horses.”

 ***

Just beyond the halfway point of their journey, Kahlan pulled back of the reins of her horse, coming to a complete halt. In a flash, Carina was at her side. “Mommy, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“The sign outside that establishment, it matches the markings on the coin your mother left for me at the cottage.”

“Let’s go,” Denna said.

“No, we’ll leave Donovan and the girls at Mr. Anders’ home and circle back for a closer look.”

When they arrived, Lucia suggested they wait outside so that she could speak to her father alone. Kahlan and Denna paced impatiently while Donovan and the girls saw to the horses. When Kahlan took a step toward the door, Sophie’s firm grip stopped her. “Mom,” she said, tipping her head.

“You’re right, baby.” Kahlan sighed and returned to her pacing.

After a half an hour, Lucia opened the door. “Come in, please.” It was a clean, well-lit room with a large window that provided a view of the garden. The decor consisted of a table with a vase at its center, four chairs, and a prominent painting on the wall depicting a family. A man that could be none other than a younger, happier version of Omar, wearing a suit consistent with the fashion of those days, held a little girl, perhaps two summers old, in his arms. Beside him stood by a tall, dark-haired woman with a warm  
smile and kind eyes; next to her was another little girl, three of four summers older than the little one.

Kahlan had to turn away from it. That family portrait served as evidence of Omar’s unending grief. She could not help but wonder what  
would become of her own family if Cara were to be lost to them forever.

Walking across the room to stand beside him, Kahlan took one of his hands between both of her own, and said, “Thank you.” Omar nodded but did not meet her gaze.

“The books are stored in the cellar,” Lucia said, guiding Sophie, Carina, and Donovan down a long staircase.

“It was very generous of your father to allow us to look through his books,” Sophie said, her gaze falling on various tomes she deemed relevant.

“I’m afraid I’ll be of little use to you,” Lucia said, “unlike my parents, I have no scholarly tendencies.”

“Same here,” Carina added with a shrug. “Where can I change?” she asked Lucia. Denna, not one for modesty, changed behind a bookshelf –– leaving young Donovan red-faced.

“Upstairs, in my old room. It’s the second door to the left,” Lucia said.

Standing at the top of the stairs, Kahlan called out to her daughters, “You children mind Mr. Anders. Denna and I are going to pay a visit to that establishment we passed earlier.”

It took Carina over an hour to wrestle out of her dress and lace up her leathers without an extra pair of hands. Sophie or Kahlan usually came to her aid but on this day she decided to go at it alone.

When she finally got back downstairs, she found that Sophie was giving Lucia a rather animated lecture on the historical link between the Midlands and the southern territory. “According to this,” she said, pointing at a passage in one of Mr. Anders’ books, “the odd device my mom left for us was smuggled from the Old World two centuries ago by a renowned thief. He tried to sell it but because no one knew what purpose it served, he never managed it. And now,” she said, with a dramatic pause, “thanks to your father’s generosity, we have uncovered the mystery.”

Lucia, having spent the better part of the afternoon in Sophie’s company, was completely absorbed by her brilliant storytelling and sweeping intellect. “Well,” she said, “are you going to tell me what it does? The suspense is killing me.”

Sophie smiled at her and said, “Since you served as my research assistant, it is only fair that I tell you.” She pushed her chair closer to Lucia, and pointed at the text.

“That’s impossible,” Lucia said.

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t think it is. The accompanying mathematical formula is correct. The device –– it’s called a stopwatch, by the way –– stops time. Do you think your father would mind if I take this book back to the inn with me?”

“Of course not,” Lucia said, nudging her playfully with her elbow. “My father loves geniuses as much as I love pretty girls.” Sophie blushed and giggled a bit at the compliment.

Carina, who had been standing there for twenty minutes waiting to be acknowledged, rolled her eyes and released a long-suffering sigh as she witnessed the exchange. “Carina,” Sophie said, giddy with excitement, “I know what that odd device does, and…” she trailed off for a moment, “I think I have some ideas to how it may help us get Mom back.”

“Leave it to Sophie,” Carina said under her breath.

Donovan, who had not left his post all afternoon, held the door open as Lucia and Sophie chatted and laughed while they all walked back upstairs. “Don’t forget to change into your dress,” Sophie said to her sister, causing her to release yet another sigh.

***

Kahlan grimaced when they entered the tavern. The place was filled with gruff characters who, by the looks of them, had at this early hour already taken too much drink. Some were partaking in games of chance while others were in the company of women –– most of whom Kahlan and Denna suspected weren’t women at all. “This is…different.” Kahlan said with a shrug.

Denna, whose own establishment catered to several clients who preferred taking their pleasure from women with alternate equipment, could distinguish them from a league away. “That one there,” she said, pointing at a person of slight build with delicate features, “would serve that general of yours well. Small but big where it counts, just how he likes them.”

“Denna!” Kahlan said, blushing furiously. The former Mord’Sith rolled her eyes. Having been married to Cara for twenty years, she was certain Kahlan had heard far worse –– if only between the sheets.

As they got closer to the bar, Denna took a protective stance. “Magic,” she said. Kahlan tipped her head but her countenance remained impassive.

“May we have two glasses of ale, please?” Kahlan smiled politely at the bartender, who impolitely dropped his gaze to her bosom. He then took a long, hard look at Denna –– paying particular attention to her leathers. They were too far south for anyone to know what a Mord’Sith was yet there was an unmistakable flash of recognition in his expression. His eyes quickly returned to Kahlan’s as he nervously dried some glasses. Kahlan dropped coins for their drinks on the counter, then, meeting his gaze, she reached in her pocket and placed the gold coin Cara had left for her at the cabin on the counter as well. When he reached for it, as if by powerful magic, he found Kahlan’s dagger stuck on the counter, nicking the web of his hand between the thumb and index finger just enough to keep it in place.

The man grimaced –– beads of sweat instantly running down his forehead. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said.

“Then I suggest you tell the nice lady what you know about this coin,” Denna said menacingly. “Otherwise you’ll have to deal with me and, believe me, I’m not nice at all.”

“It opens a door,” he said.

“And what door would that be?” Denna asked.

“It’s nothing, just a storage room.” Kahlan’s hand went to his throat.

“Oh, I neglected to mention that the nice lady doesn’t like liars.”

“So it is you,” he said to Kahlan. “She said you might come, but I had to be sure.” He looked down at his hand then back up at Kahlan. She met his gaze for a long moment before finally tugging at her dagger. “You could hurt someone with that thing,” he said as he walked from behind the counter to stand next to them, gesturing toward a door. “Come in, please.”

In stark contrast with the tavern, this room, which served as an office, but also as a keep of sorts, was impeccably organized. Hundreds of vials with clearly labeled potions, along with color-coded boxes containing countless items with magical properties, lined the shelves. Kahlan had a mind to invite him back to Aydindril so that he could aid the Wizard of First Order in cleaning up the dreadful mess that was the Wizard’s Keep.

As soon as he closed the door behind them, with the wave of a hand, he healed the wound Kahlan had inflicted upon him. As was the case with all Mord’Sith –– with the exception of Carina –– Denna hated magic. “Watch those hands, Wizard, or you may lose them.”

Kahlan placed her hand on Denna’s shoulder in a calming gesture before turning toward the man. “What is your name?” Kahlan asked.

“I am called Lochan, my lady.”

“You know my wife,” Kahlan said, her eyes fixed on his.

Lochan nodded. “Yes, and I know that if you are here it is because the Great Warrior is in need of help.”

Denna sighed and shook her head. “Leave it to Cara,” she mumbled, no longer able to repress the phrase from leaving her lips.

“Sit, please,” he said. “And for the record, I’m no wizard. I come from an ancient lineage of adepts; my gift comes to me naturally. The door this coin opens leads to the passage between realms, just beyond the Great Divide. For generations, the firstborn son or daughter in my family was bestowed the title of Guardian of the Realms. Alas, that is no more.”

“Passage between realms?” Kahlan asked with her brow tightly knitted.

“Yes, let’s call it a shortcut. The journey between realms would take a lifetime but with this,” he said, holding up the coin, “it only takes a matter of hours.”

“Where is this door and will I find my wife on the other side?” Kahlan asked, gripping his forearm.

“The Great Warrior sent word to me a decade ago, long after the prison camp had been destroyed by the woman in white and her armies –– you. Her missive spoke of the possibility of having to travel between realms. The only method known to me was the Coin of Chronos which at the time was in my possession. I traveled with my beloved to the great city of the north, from which you hail, and left the coin at a prearranged location. I assumed it was still with her.”

 Kahlan shook her head. Her impatience with this secret scheme her wife had concealed for years was growing by the minute. So much so that it was all she could do to keep from questioning the whole of their marriage. “No, she left it for me before she disappeared. If am to get her back, I need you tell me everything you know.”

Lochan rubbed the back of his neck, as if doing so hard enough would produce the answers Kahlan needed. “She saved lives, that wife of yours. Among them, the person in this world whom I loved most. She, or he, depending on whom you ask, died a few years later, but that time it was…” He trailed off lost in his own memories.

“Lochan, please,” Kahlan said.

“You’ll need an archer,” he said, returning to himself, “a good one. From the balcony of the large inn in town, your archer will have to loose an arrow that will need to travel nearly one hundred leagues ––”

“One hundred leagues?” Kahlan blurted out, slack-jawed.

“Fish in the sea,” Denna said under her breath, earning herself a death glare from Kahlan.

“Yes,” he said, lifting his hands apologetically, then opening a cabinet and pulling out a box with intricate designs depicting a journey across land and sea. A small child, a girl, with a crossbow and quiver strapped to her back arrives at what appears to be the end of the world, then climbs atop a winged creature that carries her into the heavens.

Kahlan tipped her head. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

“Open it,” Lochan said, handing it to her.

In it, she found a single arrow with a head made of pure gold, a shaft made of glass, and fletching shaped like wings. “The magic that created this arrow has been lost to this world. I doubt that there is another one like it left,” he said, staring down at it. “Pick your archer with great care.”

Denna smirked, feeling a surge of pride rise in her chest. “Oh, we have our archer –– the best one in all of the territories, possibly the world,” she said. Her reaction surprised Kahlan, and yet it didn’t. Sophie and Carina were easy to love but it was more than that. Denna and Sophie had developed a genuine friendship.

“You will need this as well.” He handed her a tiny vial. “Have your archer place a single drop on the head of the arrow.”

“But what is the intended target?” Kahlan asked.

“If your archer is as good as you say, the anointed arrow will find its mark. Have your horses at the ready for upon releasing the arrow you’ll have to follow its trail,” he said. 

“It will lead you to the door that is opened by the Coin of Chronos.”

“Thank you,” Kahlan said, as she and Denna turned to leave. She stopped before reaching the door. “I’m sorry someone you loved was lost to you.”

Kahlan barely uttered a word on the ride back to the Anders’ home. Regardless of the shame or guilt Cara may have felt for what happened at the camp –– the things she’d done to get Carina back to Aydindril, and to save her own life –– she should have told Kahlan, she should have trusted her wife’s love for her enough to tell her everything.

After a while, Denna urged her horse forward to ride next to Kahlan’s. Without preamble, she said, “Cara and I were never on good terms,” she said. “In fact, I was harder on her than on any of the other Mord’Sith I was tasked with breaking. A young Mord’Sith must accept the reality of her new life if she is to be of any use to her Lord. Cara, while covered in her own blood and hanging from chains, said to me, ‘This may be life now, but no matter what you do to me, someday it won’t be.’ In her own way, Cara is stubbornly optimistic and hopeful, while also managing to be a realist. She prepares for the worst but never stops hoping for the best. It’s annoying and stupid, but it’s also the reason you and Richard saved the world. I’d be willing to wager that throughout your quest Cara was bending the world to her will for the sake of protecting you both. Just as she did for the sake of the miracle child.”

Denna took Kahlan’s silence as an indication that she wasn’t ready to stop being angry at Cara. The Mother Confessor and her Mord’Sith would forever be two sides of the same stubborn coin, and Denna was starting to suspect that it was so by their own design.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter opens with Cara having some major regrets as to how she handled the looming threat that hung over her head for years; she also reveals the intentions behind the choices she made. One of the Amnell girls gets herself into a heap of trouble with her mother and has to work hard to redeem herself. And last but not least, all of the elements for Cara's rescue mission come together. Expect some major action coming up in the next couple of chapters.

Time was running out. Cara could hear the men who were guarding her discussing the details of what she knew to be an ill-fated plan. She’d agreed to it in a desperate effort to deliver Carina to Aydindril and, if she had it to do over, she would not change a thing. At this late hour, however, her one regret was not telling Kahlan everything when she had the chance. All the good that had come into her life: her daughters, her life in Aydindril –– even Richard –– had Kahlan as a common denominator. Kahlan would have found a better way, if only she would have been given a chance to do so. “I didn’t want you to worry,” she said, squatting down with her hands on either side of her head. “I wanted everything to be perfect for you and our girls.” It occurred to her that even if Kahlan managed to find her, she’d likely dissolve their marriage contract the moment they got to Aydindril, and who could blame her?

“Guard,” she called out, “what are you waiting for? Unleash the beast. Let’s get this over with.”

“It isn’t time yet,” a voice growled back at her.

Cara rolled her eyes. “For fuck’s sake!” she bellowed. “My wife is going to kill me.”

“Good,” said the burly man she had kicked in the groin a few days before, “she can do so as soon as your end of the bargain you made with my mistress has been met.”

“Are you daft? I’ve told you a dozen times, I – cannot – do – it. Your plan is flawed.”

The man threw his arms up in frustration just as he had every time they had this argument. “Then why did you agree to it?”

Only on this occasion Cara didn’t have the energy for witty comebacks and sarcasm. Instead, she leaned back and rested on the stone wall behind her. “I have a wife,” she said. “She’s beautiful and brave and kind. Out of all the people in this sorry world, she chose me as her mate. Her eyes, they are the color of the sky, and her smile so bright it puts the sun to shame. I would gladly die a thousand deaths to keep her well.

We have two daughters, the youngest is the image of her mother, and she’s smart as a whip. She’s going to achieve greatness, mark my words. My eldest, that she’s even in this world defies all reason. No child has come to be as she did. And she has more goodness and courage in her heart than anyone you’ll ever come across, save her mother. It was for the sake of her life that I agreed to your mistress’s ridiculous bargain. What she’s asking of me is impossible. I will die, and whatever trinket it is that she wants me to retrieve from the depths of the earth will remain there forever.”

“My mistress has but one thing left in her life and it’s that object. It sounds as if you have it all,” he said, shaking his head. “Perhaps you’ll find a way.”

Cara shrugged and shut her eyes for a moment. “I’ve done things that have surely earned me a place in the Underworld. All I can hope for is one last chance to look upon my wife’s beautiful face. After that, the Keeper can do with me what he will.”

The man squeezed her shoulder, and said, “You haven’t been very pleasant to be around, but I will pray for you just as I will for my mistress.”

***

Denna and Kahlan arrived just before sunset. Donovan was at his self-appointed post by the front door while Carina and Sophie awaited their mother’s return. As soon as they heard the horses they both ran out to greet Kahlan, practically trampling over Mr. Anders and Lucia in their eagerness to see her. “Mommy,” Carina said, throwing her arms around her mother’s neck, “Sophie and I were getting worried.” Any lingering anger Kahlan had been carrying vanished when she looked upon her daughters. Carina had been Cara’s gift to her –– and her salvation. Sophie’s confidence and keen intellect she knew were the product of all the time she’d spent with Cara through the years. Whatever possessed Cara to keep this secret was but one bitter drop in an ocean of perfect devotion. Not to say that she didn’t have every intention of having Cara spend quite a bit of quality time in the stables.

Denna shook her head. “You’d think they hadn’t seen their mother for years.”

“Mom, you won’t believe what this thing does,” Sophie said to her mother, and then proceeded to rattle off an explanation at such a high rate of speed that Kahlan could barely catch every other word of it.

Kahlan smiled. “Come here,” she said, pulling her girls into a tight embrace. “What would I do without you two?”

“Miss us terribly,” Carina chimed in.

“Come, let’s say goodnight to Mr. Anders and Lucia so that we can get back to the inn.”

“But Mom, Lucia can ride back with us,” Sophie said, “she’s my research assistant,” she added, looking back at the girl over her shoulder with a huge grin on her face, “and she does live at the inn.”

“Very well, as long as her father is in agreement.”

Denna rolled her eyes, predicting that she was about to partake in some ridiculous slumber party.

***

“A hundred leagues?” Sophie said with her mouth agape and her arms hanging at her side.

Carina marched up to her little sister, and standing before her with a hand on each of her shoulders and said, “You can do it, Sophie.”

“Carina, when I was five you assured me that my dream of flying atop a winged creature would surely come true.” She crossed her arms in front of her awaiting a response from her sister but none came. “All my life you’ve been overestimating my abilities. But now our mother’s life depends on a physical impossibility.”

Kahlan rushed to intervene. “Baby, your sister loves you and believes in you, as do I. There is no archer more skilled than you.”

“I don’t even know the location of my target.” She covered her face with her hands. “This is too much responsibility. It’s Mom’s life we’re talking about.”

“Sophie’s right, Mom, it isn’t fair. Maybe I can…” she trailed off. Carina was certainly a capable archer but her little sister’s skills were far superior.

Carina’s willingness to take on the responsibility herself put a smile on Sophie’s face. This is how it was between them. Carina was her little sister’s protector and biggest supporter, and Sophie was her big sister’s best friend and most ardent admirer. “I love you so much,” she said, “but what wouldn’t be fair would be for me to allow all the years Mom spent training me to go to waste. I’m not going to let her down when she needs me the most.” Kahlan pulled her into an embrace and kissed the top of her head. “I just need to think on how to best approach this.”

Sophie walked out to the balcony and closed her eyes for a moment, allowing the cool evening breeze to clear her mind. She then opened the box and took out the arrow. “It’s beautiful,” she said, as she tested the bow’s string and flexibility. Her mother and sister had seen that determined look on her face many times. There was no doubt in their minds that Cara’s life was in good hands.

Denna strolled out to stand beside the young Confessor. “If it were my life hanging on the tip of an arrow, you’d be my choice as an archer.”

Sophie smiled, and said, “Thank you, Denna. You’re a good friend.” The former Mord’Sith wasn’t sure if she should be insulted by that last part. Not once had she ever been called a friend –– let alone a good one.

“Watch your mouth, little girl, or you may get a taste of my agiel.” Sophie shook her head and laughed. Leave it to a Mord’Sith to be offended by a compliment.

“Forgive me, Mistress Denna,” she said teasingly.

“Much better,” Denna said, tipping her head in approval.

***

Sleep didn’t come easily for any of them that evening. Kahlan was experiencing that familiar churning in her stomach that the years had taught her served as a harbinger –– only she’d never mastered the art of predicting whether it brought good tidings or impending doom. She could hear Sophie and Carina whispering secrets to each other in the adjacent room, just as they did as children. With every passing day, they were shedding what little was left of their childhood and becoming women. Her heart clenched at the thought of the day Carina would refer to her as something other than Mommy, or Sophie would greet her without a half dozen kisses on the cheek, followed by a fit of giggles. Her girls and her wife were everything to her. No amount of power or gold could possibly make up for losing them. For as much as she would have liked to believe otherwise, none of the clues or objects they’d gathered guaranteed their success in finding Cara. Cara, whom she had loved for more than half her life now; Cara, who could make her frown and laugh in a single sentence; Cara, who had cut through her dreams like a knife, only to replace them with better ones and then made them all come true. “I need you to come home, my love,” she whispered, knowing that on this night, and probably on many more to come, she was at the mercy of all things.

***

“Where’s Sophie?” Carina said, rushing from the room she shared with her sister and running into Kahlan’s room, still in her sleeping clothes.

“She’s not with you?” Kahlan asked, reaching for her daggers.

Denna heard the commotion from her room and immediately got dressed. “You people need to have the Wizard fashion some sort of tracking device for your entire family.” She already had her agiel in hand and was heading for the suite door, right behind Kahlan and Carina.

What they found on the other side left Kahlan speechless, and Carina questioning her own eyes. Denna, on the other hand, had a smirk on her face. “The Princess is all grown up,” she said, the sound of her voice causing Sophie to tear herself away from Lucia’s lips.

“Mom!” Sophie said, turning various shades of red with Lucia standing awkwardly beside her. To Kahlan’s knowledge, her youngest had never expressed any interest in the fairer sex, and furthermore, she was far too young to engage in such behavior.

“Lucia, you should go. Sophie, inside, now.” Kahlan closed the door with more force than necessary and released a deep sigh. 

In an effort to avoid being a casualty of the family drama, Denna said, “I’ll check on Donovan; perhaps he’s met a nice boy.” She was out the door before the others could say a word.

Kahlan took a seat across the table from her daughters, doing her best to gather herself before speaking. “Sophie,” she said in as calm a tone as she could manage, “You gave your sister and me a fright. With everything that’s happening, I expected much better from you.”

“You’re right, Mom, I’m sorry.” She started to get up but one look from her mother was enough to make her think better of it.

“Now then, about what happened. Sophie, you are still a child. I will not have you experimenting with girls or boys until you finish your studies. That goes for you as well,” she said, turning to look at Carina.

Carina shrugged. “I look but don’t touch.” She put up her hands in a gesture of surrender. This was one occasion on which she knew that jumping to her sister’s defense would earn a month’s worth of cleaning the stables.

“But Mom, I really like Lucia and I’ll be eighteen in…ten months. That isn’t much younger than when you married Dad.”

Kahlan took a deep breath: one kiss and her teenage daughter was talking back to her. This would not do at all. “What did you just say?” She gave Sophie as stern a look as she ever had before. “Because you do know that when I was just a few years older than you I was tasked with saving the world.”

“I – I just meant that…I’m sorry. I’ve never liked anyone so much and she likes me as well.”

“You are a seventeen-year-old girl, and more importantly, you girls are Confessors. You do not have the luxury of embarking upon such things lightly. We’ve talked about this before.” Sophie was tempted to protest about the unfairness of it all but a pointed look from her sister caused her to hold her tongue. “Unless, of course, you’d like to walk around with a Rada’Han around your neck.”

Both girls grimaced at the remark. “Mommy,” Carina said, tipping her head.

“Given the current circumstances, I cannot have my children acting out. My wife, your mother, could be lost to us forever. If you think for one moment that I’m going to put up with teenage rebellion right now, you are wrong.” Kahlan shut her eyes for a moment with her fists clenched at her sides. “Sophie, Lucia is older than you, and I suspect, much more experienced. I will allow a friendship between you two but nothing more. When you are old enough, if you are still interested in her, I will consider a formal request for her to woo you.” Sophie was more than a little crestfallen; she still had four years left in her studies. “But know this, that my youngest daughter’s first kiss took place in a stairwell, without any concern for her respectability, does not sit well with me. If your mother were here…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

“Let’s get back to the business of rescuing Mommy,” Carina said, covering Kahlan’s hand with her own.

“Yes,” Kahlan said, “let’s do that.”

***

The next morning, with every intention of redeeming herself, Sophie had Carina and Donovan assist her in determining the location of the target she was tasked with hitting, along with trying to discern the exact moment at which she was to release the anointed arrow. “Are you angry with me?” she asked her sister. Carina gave her a quizzical look. “About Lucia, I mean. You did see her first.”

Carina chuckled. “Yes, on the day I was born. Of course I’m not angry with you. The sea is filled with fish and I intend to cast out often.” She hugged her sister and kissed her on the temple. “But Mommy is right. You leaving the room without telling anyone was foolish and inconsiderate. She’s also right about you being too young.”

“But when you meet the right person,” Sophie said, “age in inconsequential.”

“Sophie, choosing your mate at seventeen is ridiculous, and besides, we hardly know her. Don’t be in such a rush to grow up. We both have a lifetime of responsibilities ahead of us. Let’s focus of finding Mommy and getting back home. That’s all that matters right now.”

“When did you get so wise?”

“When I realized that people we love can be taken away from us at any moment, even someone as brave and fierce as our mother.” Sophie noticed her sister’s eyes tearing up as she spoke.

“You’re right, I guess I went a bit girl crazy. I’m sorry,” Sophie said, “it will never happen again.

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to Mommy. She needs us now more than ever,” Carina said.

Sophie pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “I will but I think I should give her some space.”

The three of them walked out onto the balcony and spent hours trying to spot something, anything that appeared to be even remotely significant but it was to no avail. “Princess, the Mother Confessor said that in the hands of a skilled archer, the arrow would find its mark,” Donovan said. “Perhaps, you should stop looking for the target and instead try to feel the target.”

Sophie released a puff of air, and with a shrug said, “All right, I’ll do my best.” Her sister handed her the bow and arrow. Sophie stretched her neck from side to side, just as Cara had taught her, and after a few calming breaths, placed the arrow in its slot and pulled back on it –– with her eyes closed. She then felt a force turn her body in the direction of a lake that, in her best estimation, was a hundred leagues away. “There,” she said with a grin, “that’s it, I’m certain of it.”

Carina gave her a hug, then patted Donovan on the back. “Well done, soldier.” His fist went his chest and he bowed his head. That last part earned him an eye roll.

By the time she’d uttered the words, Sophie had run past the others and into her mother’s arms. “I found it, Mom. Well, I think I found it, or rather its general direction.” Kahlan nodded, but didn’t say a word. It was then that Sophie recalled that she had yet to apologize to her mother. “But more importantly, I want you to know how sorry I am for disappointing you.”

“Sophie, there is nothing you could do that would ever cause me to be disappointed in you. You are growing up; I understand that you’ll make mistakes. However, dishonesty and lack of respect, I will not tolerate.”

Sophie hung her head down in shame. “I know it was wrong of me. But the search for Mom, being away from home, meeting all these new people, it hasn’t been easy.”

Kahlan sighed, and said, “You’re a Confessor, baby. Someday you may even be the Mother Confessor. That comes with responsibilities and limitations that other girls your age will never face. It also puts you in a unique position to make this world a better place. It’s your destiny.”

Sophie thought for a long moment before speaking again. “I’ll probably make more mistakes, but I’ll never make the same one twice.” Kahlan pulled her into a tight embrace. She knew full well her wife had inculcated that mentality in their daughters since they were toddlers.

“Go have your meal with the others,” Kahlan said, “I’ll join you shortly.”

Seconds later she heard a knock on the door; on the other side she found a rather dejected Lucia. Kahlan raised her brows and stared at her for a long moment before gesturing with her hand that she was welcome to come in. “I wanted to apologize, Mother Confessor. I…my life has been different than your daughter’s.” She looked down at her shoes searching for the right words.

“Go on,” Kahlan said.

“Sophie is very mature and so intelligent, I thought…or perhaps I didn’t think. I’m sorry, and please extend my apologies to Sophie.”

Kahlan could see that the girl was being honest, and that her remorse was real. But Sophie was her baby; this was not something she could easily dismiss. “Sophie is still a child and because she’s a Confessor, there are ramifications of her actions that go far beyond your understanding.”

Lucia swallowed hard and nodded. “I regret the loss of your family’s friendship, but please accept this.” She handed Kahlan a thick tome which looked to be a thousand years old. “I asked my father to help me find anything that could be of use to you. For the first time in twenty years, he entered his old library.”

Kahlan’s lips parted. “Oh, Lucia, I don’t know what to say.”

The girl bowed her head. “I’ve never seen him happier. We spent the entire night perusing through books until we found this chart. My father said that from it, Sophie will be able to discern the exact moment she should release the anointed arrow.”

“Thank you,” Kahlan said, throwing her arms around the girl’s neck. “And please express my gratitude to your father. Thank you, thank you so very much.”

“The Great Warrior saved our lives, and your daughters have shown me nothing but kindness. It is I who owes you a debt of gratitude.” With that, she walked out the door.

“You eavesdroppers can come out now,” she said to Denna and the others.

“Mord’Sith do not eavesdrop,” Denna said defensively.

“Mommy, you can’t still be angry at Lucia, and about Sophie, well ––” Kahlan’s raised palm instantly hushed Carina before she could plead her little sister’s case.

“Carina Mason Rahl Amnell, I suggest you stop while you’re behind.” That her mother used her full name was a clear indication that it was time to close her mouth and open her ears. “Sophie, it appears that Mr. Anders marked various pages. Pay particular attention to them. Donovan, I’m sure that as is the case with all my soldiers, you’re well versed in cartography?” Predictably his fist when to his chest. “Do what you can to produce an accurate map of the territory. Denna, you and I will focus on strategy. We must assume that Cara is under heavy guard. It’s likely that we’ll be heavily outnumbered. While we will need as many able bodies as possible, keeping the girls safe has to be our number one priority. If anything were to happen to me ––”

“Mommy,” Carina said, rising to her feet, with Sophie promptly closing the distance to stand beside her. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

Kahlan released a deep sigh. Her daughters had yet to get a taste of a true battlefield. “Let us focus on the task at hand,” she said. The girls glanced at each other but didn’t say a word.

They were up until the late hours of the night working out every minute detail. Doing so gave Kahlan an immense measure of comfort. Now they had a plan, a road map, a way to get Cara back. She could still feel her heart beating hard against her ribcage, and her mind still was racing toward an imaginary point in the future, but they had a plan. The thought of that alone was enough to keep her sufficiently grounded to face what was to come.

By morning, Sophie and Donovan had narrowed down the location of the target even further. It was agreed that Carina and Denna would head out before the others on a sort of reconnaissance mission. All that was left was narrowing down the exact moment at which Sophie was to release the arrow. The pages Omar had marked contained complicated mathematical formulas and a series of astronomical drawings that did not coincide with what she’d learned in her own studies.

“This can’t be right,” she mumbled to herself.

Kahlan leaned in to look over her shoulder, “What is it, baby?”

“This star, it doesn’t belong there. I’ve seen this constellation a thousand times. It doesn’t belong there, I know it doesn’t.”

With Sophie’s frustration growing by the minute, Kahlan stepped away to give her space, only to turn around seconds later. “That’s it, that’s your answer,” Kahlan said, met by a quizzical look from her daughter. “It’s an anomaly, an astronomical anomaly.”

“Just like in Mother Confessor Magna’s book,” Sophie said. “Mom, you’re the genius, not me. The eclipse brought about the Minokawa, the Minokawa didn’t bring about the eclipse. The Minokawa just happened to wake up when the sun eclipsed the moon and the villagers assumed it was the cause. The myth was retold for generations and thus assumed as fact, but it’s just that, a myth. All I have to do is determine the alignment of the planets.”

By then Kahlan was more than a little confused but she decided to remain silent. She’d seen her daughter in this intense mode of discernment many times and not once had it failed her. “What if, Mom, what if I added the mass of this ancillary star to the formula in Mr. Anders’ book?”

Kahlan gestured with her hands and parted her lips for a long moment. “I – I think that would be a fine course of action.”

“Much to her mother’s dismay, Sophie closed the book and rose to her feet. “I need to talk to Lucia,” she said. “I promise not to kiss her.”

Kahlan rolled her eyes. “Sophie, we haven’t the time to travel to Mr. Anders’ house.”

“Travel?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “No. Lucia’s working today; she’s downstairs. She mentioned that one of the servers is a skilled student of astronomy. I’d like to consult him.”

“Oh,” Kahlan said, and before she could add a single syllable Sophie was gone. Kahlan sighed and decided to put this time alone to good use. She reached into her pack and pulled out the music box that Cara had gifted her. She hadn’t told the others that she brought it with her because, much like the cabin, it belonged to her and Cara alone. She closed her eyes and listened to Cara’s voice over and over. It brought tears to her eyes but she needed it, she needed to hear her wife’s voice.

Twenty minutes later Sophie returned with a scrawny boy wearing thick spectacles, and a messy mane that sprung vertically out of his scalp. Never had Kahlan come across such a defiance of gravity. “Mom, this is Albert.”

Kahlan blinked. “Hello, Albert.” The boy nodded but didn’t say a word.

“He’s shy,” Sophie said, with a shrug.

Within thirty minutes, the two of them had scribbled what seemed like an endless scroll of mathematical symbols and illustrations that, truth be told, were making Kahlan a little dizzy. Then Sophie and Albert turned to look at each other, and with a shrug called it a day.

“Thank you, Albert,” Kahlan said to the back of his head. “What an odd young man,” she mumbled.

“Odd, but very smart. I will release the arrow three hours and thirteen minutes past midnight.”

The calmness with which her youngest spoke was either complete certainty or runaway hubris. Kahlan opted to believe it was the former. She’d always instilled humility into her girls, and aside from the ridiculous episode at the Palace, they’d never displayed a trace of arrogance. “Old indeed,” she said recalling the incident.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This here is an action and adventure chapter. Buckle up and whatever you do, don't make Kahlan mad: it won't end well.

 

“This can’t be it?” Denna said, scrunching her nose, looking out at a body water that went on as far as the eye could see.

Carina shrugged, and said, “Maybe it can’t be, but it is.”

“Well, this is absolutely ridiculous. Unless your annoying repertoire of talents includes walking on water.”

Carina thought for a moment. “I’ve never tried, but I doubt that it does.”

“Retractable gills, then?”

“Not that I’ve noticed.”

Denna released a frustrated sigh and threw up her arms. “Leave it to fucking Cara,” she said.

“Be glad neither of my mothers is here. One of them, or perhaps both, would probably give you a good beating for using that kind of language in front of me.”

“And what would they do if I were to tell you how insufferably annoying you are? It isn’t natural, you know. No one, no one should have the type of power you have, let alone a soft-hearted little girl who still refers to her mothers as Mommy. What is that?”

Carina laughed so hard she practically keeled over. “Is that your problem with me? My abundance of talents disturbs you?”

“No,” Denna said, narrowing her eyes. “That they are wasted on someone who isn’t taking full advantage of them is. Why, if I had your abilities, I’d rule empires by now. Nations would lie at my feet. One word from me would bring men to their knees.”

Carina gazed at her with a sad smile on her face. “You’d have me be Darken Rahl, then?” The question caught Denna off guard; she had no reply for it. “Power without wisdom leads to tyranny. My mother, your former sister, taught me that. Sophie may be the scholar, but I’ve read the books, too. Do you think it’s easy for me to not fall into that trap, to not take what I want, to not destroy the lives of those who anger me? Because I can, you know, I just choose not to. You think me weak but only because you haven’t any understanding of the strength it takes to be humble, to constantly remind myself that my abilities don’t make me better than anyone else. It isn’t weakness that keeps me from becoming a tyrant, it’s compassion and integrity. That is my strength, not the magic.”

Denna hadn’t expected such eloquence and passion from the young Mord’Sith. In a few years Cara’s brat would be a leader, a great one, one who would usher in an era of peace the likes of which this world had never known. Leave it to Cara, Denna thought to herself, recalling all of the times Cara had displayed those very qualities only to earn herself time in a Mord’Sith training room –– usually with Denna wielding the whip.  
   
“Let’s get back to town so that we can see about you growing gills,” she said, throwing her arm around Carina’s shoulders. The young Mord’Sith nodded and returned the gesture.

 

***

  
“The middle of a lake?” Kahlan asked.

“A huge lake, Mommy. Denna expects me to grow gills but I doubt I can,” she said, plunking down on a chair.

Denna rolled her eyes. “It was a joke.”

All the while, Donovan was flapping his jaw, trying to get a word in. “Will you stop doing that thing with your jaw and speak already?” Carina admonished.

Donovan waved his arms apologetically. “I’m a very good swimmer,” he said.

Carina shook her head. “Don’t tell me, you’re the best in all of the territories.”

“Yes, Princess,” he said with a nod, “and the fastest, as well.”

“Donovan, are you sure?” Kahlan asked, resting her hand on his shoulder. “We haven’t any idea what’s at the bottom of that lake.”

With a steely look, Donovan’s fist went to his chest. “For the General, Mother Confessor.” The boy was willing to die for Cara, they could all see it in his eyes.

“Very well then,” Kahlan said, “we ready our weapons and our horses, and Sophie releases the anointed arrow at three hours and thirteen minutes past midnight. But there are questions that have yet to be answered and all of our lives, including your mother’s, may depend upon discerning those answers. All along, we thought there was a link between the Minokawa and the eclipse, yet Sophie’s calculation show no such correlation exists. Why then did this woman wait twenty years to put all of this into motion? If the eclipse has nothing to do with this, then why didn’t she have Cara do her bidding all those years ago?” The others exchanged glances, Kahlan had a good point. “Sophie, you and Albert established when the arrow should be released, but not why it needs to happen at that moment.”

Sophie shook her head. “You’re right, Mom. I thought it had to do with the eclipse but it doesn’t. I – I don’t know.” Sophie buried her face in her mother’s chest. Those were words she wasn’t accustomed to using.

“Maybe the eclipse was meant to distract us.” Carina said. “Maybe something else of significance is happening on this day.”

“Yes, but what?” Denna asked.

Kahlan stared at the former Mord’Sith for a long moment. “If anyone has the answer to that question, it’s you.”

“When you say ‘you’ I hope you don’t mean me, because I have no idea.”

“You were there, Denna, you walked freely among them, you talked to them, you provided them with intimate services. You must have heard or seen something. Old wives’ tales, rumors, superstitions, stories, off the cuff remarks, something, anything that could be somehow significant.”

Denna stood there with a blank look on her face. All eyes were on her but for several minutes she found herself at a loss. Then her expression changed. She furrowed her brow and bit her lower lip. “When the big hole opens,” she said.

“What does that mean?” Kahlan asked, gripping Denna’s upper arms as if she could squeeze her answers from them.

“It’s an expression they used often. ‘Drink up, when the big hole opens again, it will be the end of us anyway’ or ‘wait until the big hole opens, you’ll see how far your coin will get you.’ They said things like that constantly.”

Kahlan shook her head. “That’s much too vague.” She thought for a moment, then said, “Sophie, go fetch Lucia downstairs or perhaps Albert. They were raised in this land. They must be familiar with that saying.”

“Yes,” she said, with a nod.

“Oh, and Sophie,” Kahlan said with a raised eyebrow.

“I know, look but don’t touch.” With that, she headed for the door.

“Sophie, wait,” Carina said, “I think I know this one.” She seemed as surprised by the declaration as the others. “Years ago, when I was perhaps six or seven years old, I was in the keep with Grandfather. He was boasting to one of his apprentices about his powerful magic –– that and his prowess with the ladies. He told a story about a failed invasion by a rogue militant faction from the Old World. When they attempted to penetrate the barrier, a rift of some sort occurred, creating a vacuum that sucked all manner of things into a big hole. Grandfather said he closed it with ‘powerful magic.’ But he called it ‘a wound upon the earth’ that he had patched but only the Creator herself could heal. He said that until she did so, it could be reopened by any manner of natural phenomena. I remember because it gave me nightmares for weeks.”

Kahlan furrowed her brow and worried her lower lip. “We’re far enough south to practically see the barrier and, Denna, you did say she’s from the Old World.” Denna tipped her head and nodded. Kahlan released a deep breath and scrunched her nose.  “If any of you see a big hole, take care not to fall in it.” It was the only piece of advice she could muster, and under the circumstances, it was actually quite sound. “Thus far, this woman’s actions have been much too purposeful for us to assume she chose this day on a whim.

“Now that that’s settled, I need all of you to listen carefully. I’ve been doing some research of my own. Only two people can get through the passage ––”

“What?” Carina and Sophie yelped in perfect sync. “Mommy, I’m going.” Kahlan had already predicted her daughters’ reactions.

“No,” Kahlan said firmly. “We’ve already established that this woman has men at her beck and call, and we know she has a mage. I need all of you to provide me with cover while I slip into the passage to get your mother out.”

“I could do it,” Denna said, surprising the others.

“We don’t know who or what is on the other side. Confessor magic will likely be required.”

“Mommy, I’m the most qualified. My abilities lend themselves best to this exact situation,” Carina protested.

Kahlan tipped her head and blinked. “I said no.” Carina swallowed hard. The tone of Kahlan’s voice made it perfectly clear that she would not entertain any further discussion on the matter. Carina was positively seething with anger. It was only the feel of her sister’s hand on her shoulder that kept her from lashing out.

“Come on, miracle child, let’s see to horses.” Carina glared at her but her eyes quickly softened, and with a nod she and Denna were out the door.

“Your mother made the right decision,” Denna said. “I’ve seen them in battle together. The two of them are deadlier than a pack of gars.”

“If anything were to happen to them,” Carina said, dropping her chin to her chest as she fought back tears.

“It won’t,” Denna assured her. “Cara’s gift for annoying others is only outdone by her resourcefulness. By the time your other mother enters the passage she’ll probably have roasted that big beast and eaten its entrails.”

Carina gave her a sad nod –– not that Denna’s words gave her any comfort. Neither she nor her sister was ready to face this world without their mothers. Richard loved his daughters dearly but even before the dissolution of his marriage to Kahlan, he had taken a hands-off approach to fatherhood. Carina came into their lives unexpectedly, and at a time when Kahlan needed her most –– much more than Richard did. He was still reeling from the realization that his wife had been unfaithful; starting a family had been the last thing on his mind. Yet it was impossible to not fall in love with baby Carina, and when she requested a little sister, neither of her parents could refuse her. When Cara came into the picture, his role as a parent diminished even further. It occurred to Carina that the weight of the world would fall upon her if anything were to happen to either of her mothers. That realization marked the end of her childhood.

“What’s wrong?” her sister asked when she came into the room.

Carina leaned in and kissed her sister’s forehead. “Nothing, I just love you very much.” Her sister furrowed her brow. Not once had she seen Carina so sullen.

“As well you should. I’m a very good sister,” Sophie teased.

Sophie achieved her purpose: she made her big sister smile. “Yes, you are.” She gazed at her little sister for a long moment and said, “Let’s spend some time with Mommy and the others. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

 

***

  
“Sophie,” Kahlan said, tossing the spyglass to her youngest, “this will come in handy.” Sophie shook her head.

“No, it’s more likely that you’ll need it,” she said, tossing it back to her mother. Kahlan sought to argue but there were more important matters to attend to.

Although they were still at the inn, Kahlan decided to dismiss their ridiculous traditional gender roles policy and had Denna and Carina wear their Mord’Sith leathers. Needless to say, their exit would be met with a combination of stares and gasps. But on this day, the Mother Confessor would not be bothered by such archaic rules.

The others looked on as Sophie waited for the appointed time. Donovan was already downstairs with the horses saddled for what would have to be a quick exit. His own role in this mission was a perilous one for there was no telling what he’d encounter at the bottom of the lake. “For the General, the Princesses, and their mother,” he repeated to himself silently. In the time he’d spent with Kahlan and the girls, he’d come to understand that losing Cara would be a crushing blow to this family –– one that he would willingly give up his own life to prevent.

“Carina, put one of the agiels in my pack,” Kahlan said. “Your mother will need her weapon.” She added after a long pause, “This ends today.”

Sophie and Carina exchanged glances. Their mother was in full battle mode ––platitudes, and words like please and thank you were not going to be part of her repertoire. “Mom,” Sophie said, chancing what she knew would be an unwelcome exchange with her mother, “the minute you and Mom are together, press the stopwatch. Walk out the same way you went in.” All she got in return was a curt nod.

When Sophie took several deep breaths and stretched her neck from side to side, the others knew it was time. “Go,” Kahlan said to Carina and Denna, “Sophie and I will follow.” With her mother standing beside her, Sophie release the arrow and they watched as it lit up the night sky like a thousand lightning bolts.

 

***

  
“What was that?” Denna asked, when it zipped by them.

“That was my little sister doing what she does best,” Carina said with a tip of her head and a smirk on her face.

Kahlan and Sophie were beside them in a flash. “Let’s go,” Kahlan said, and just as they were about to set off, a familiar voice chimed in.

“Wait for me,” Lucia said, already on her horse with a sword strapped to her back. Kahlan looked back over her shoulder and nodded. One more fighter was more than welcome.

 

***

  
“It’s time,” the guard said to Cara. “The beast will awaken soon and when it does the inner passage will open. The rest is up to you.” Already knowing that their reluctant warrior was as deadly as the beast she was about to face, they took the necessary precautions. Ten men with weapons entered the cave and dragged her to the entrance to the passage. “Once you’re inside, I will toss you the key and a weapon,” the guard said, “but move quickly. It will only remain open for a fraction of a second.” He looked back at her over his shoulder and added, “May the Creator shine her light upon you.”

Cara shook her head. She had no doubt she was about to walk directly into the Keeper’s hands. Her only hope of ever seeing Kahlan again was coming back as a baneling, but to her knowledge, he was no longer offering that deal. Before she knew what was happening, she was shoved into the passageway –– with her hands and feet still in chains. The clink of a key and thud of an axe hitting the ground soon followed. It was all she could do to dive down and reach for them before a steel door a half a meter thick slammed shut. Just as she scrambled to unlock the chains, she heard the beast’s grumbles. When she rose to her feet and turned to face her foe what she saw caused her to lose all her color and stagger back several paces. This was no common beast like a gar or a shadrin; this was a giant monster practically as big as the Confessor’s Palace. It had steel claws and a steel beak, and oddly enough, it was covered with feathers.  She looked down at her axe and for a moment laughed at the absurdity of her current circumstances. She was expected to face what, in her estimation, resembled a very mean overgrown chicken, with nothing but a common pickaxe.

Upon further inspection, it struck her that she was no longer in the cave that had been her prison for weeks. The hallway in which she now stood was as wide as her eyes could see and high above her was a domed ceiling that practically reached the sky –– all designed to accommodate the size of the monster who lived within these walls. The ceiling, however, she found particularly interesting for even at this great distance, she could see that there was some sort of mechanical contraption attached to it that surely served some purpose. What it was, she could not fathom.

 

***

  
Upon reaching the lake, they found that Sophie’s arrow produced a beam of light that shone from the bottom of the lake up to the heavens. “Well, I guess he’ll have no trouble finding the door,” Denna said.

“Donovan, go,” Kahlan said, urging him forward with a hand on his back. Young Donovan quickly stripped down to his underthings and dove into the water.

Kahlan paced nervously as they waited for him to emerge from the water. It was taking too long, much too long. No one could survive underwater that long. “Denna,” Kahlan said, “at the first sign of trouble all of you ––” She trailed off, noticing that suddenly waves were forming on the surface of the lake –– huge ones. “Spirits, he’ll drown,” Kahlan said, as they all stood by looking on helplessly.

“We have to do something, Mom,” Sophie said in a panic. Her mother was at a loss –– there was nothing to be done.

Then, just as suddenly as they had formed, the waves died down. Everything around them took on an unnatural stillness and an eerie silence that left them able to discern even the sound of their own heartbeats. But it only lasted for a few seconds before being replaced by a deafening roar that brought their hands to their own ears. Out of that roar emerged young Donovan, seemingly parting the waters with every step he took –– looking every bit like a divine apparition.

 “I found the door,” Donovan called out, with a grin on his face.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kahlan took off at a full sprint into the open path and disappeared behind the door. The moment she did so, the waters returned to cover the lake and the beam of light vanished.

“Well,” Denna said, staring at an area of Donovan’s body that was much further south than his eyes, “that’s quite a package.” In her defense, his soaked, white undercloth left, well, nothing to the imagination.

“Denna!” Carina said, quickly covering her little sister’s eyes when she noticed Sophie too was getting an eyeful. She then turned to Donovan, and said, “Will you put your trousers on?” Predictably, his fist went to his chest.

“What do we do now?” Sophie asked, looking between Carina and Denna.

“Does anyone hear that?” Lucia asked. All of them stood perfectly still and listened.

“Riders approaching –– several of them,” Denna said, “just minutes away. They must have seen the beam of light.”

“We can’t leave our mothers here,” Sophie said.

“That’s what she ––” Carina’s raised palm stopped Denna from finishing her sentence.

“Quiet, I have to think for a moment,” Carina said, pacing in front of them for a few seconds. “Our mothers aren’t available, Dad isn’t here, no high-ranking generals are here…Clearly, the intended ending to Mommy’s sentence was ‘follow Carina’s orders.’”

“It was?” Sophie asked with no small amount of skepticism.

“Obviously,” she said, “I’m next in line as commander of the troops. Given the circumstances, it’s my duty to take command now.” She shrugged and added, “The four of you are my troops. We hold back our attackers until our mothers get out safely –– and I order all of you to not die.”

Denna gave her a pat on the back. “Well played.” Cara’s brat was no coward.

“I adore you,” Sophie said, throwing her arms around her sister. Carina was certain this move would earn her a whole year of cleaning the stables but leaving her mothers wasn’t an option. Besides, as angry as Kahlan was at her wife, Carina was sure Cara would be right there with her, shoveling horse manure and piling stacks of hay.

 

***

  
When Kahlan entered the passage, she found herself in what looked to be an endless maze but as she traversed it, it became something altogether different. Wherever she looked, there were entire worlds coming in and out of existence. For a moment she found herself standing in a lush forest that she recalled from her childhood –– a beautiful woman dressed in white standing before her, soft dark curls framing her lovely face. “Mother,” she called out running toward her, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not close the space between them. And then that world was gone, leaving her a helpless child, reaching out for a moment in time that had long since passed. The next turn led to the great hall at the Confessors’ Palace. There are several soldiers there and Richard is there as well. He has tears in his eyes and Kahlan tries to comfort him but he’s just beyond her reach. But then he gives her the news of Cara’s death and she screams, she screams like a madwoman stretching out her arm to grab Richard’s throat because she blames him, she blames him for all of it. All of this already happened, she knows it did and Cara is alive but she won’t be for long if Kahlan doesn’t keep moving. She took a long stride and willed herself to move beyond her grief and turn into what looked to be a pit of darkness. In it, she discerned the form of two small children –– terrified little girls huddled in a corner with their hands bound. She reached out to free them from their bonds but, much like her mother, they forever remained beyond her reach. At that very moment, she realized she was one of those little girls and she wept, she wept for them and for herself.

It occurred to her that if she did not get through to the other side soon, she’d lose her mind for all of these worlds were starting to blend together, leaving her incapable of discerning where exactly she belonged. Even bringing up a memory of her own children’s faces was becoming difficult. Then she found herself atop a snow-covered cliff. She could see the Night Wisp forest below –– their blue glow lighting up everything around them. Strangely, they seemed unencumbered by the constant shift between space and time. Not knowing what else to do, she began to sing, causing the tiny creatures to fly to her side. “Help me,” she said, for she had no words to explain what was happening to her.

“Don’t be afraid,” one of them said to her. “Our kind exists beyond time and space.” The Wisp led her through what remained of her journey, choosing a path that took her through the happiest moments of her life. There was the first kiss she and Cara shared, and the day Carina arrived at the palace, and Sophie’s birth, and their wedding day, along with many others. The joy of each of those moments relived with every step she took. And then it was over, she’d made her way through the maze. The Wisp who had been her guide bid her farewell and left her standing before a long corridor. Kahlan took a deep breath, and ran down the corridor at full speed, hoping to find her wife –– still in one piece.

 

***

  
Cara was no coward but she wasn’t daft either. The moment the monster shifted, she turned on her heels and headed down the hallway. She could barely see her own hand in front of her but stopping was not an option –– not unless she wanted to end up a snack for what she decided was the world’s largest chicken. When she noticed a narrower corridor –– one through which the giant beast could not fit –– she made a sharp turn and ran even faster, colliding with someone who was approaching from the opposite direction at such a high speed that they both fell flat on their posteriors grimacing with pain. “Ouch,” she said, in perfect sync with the person who caused her to topple over.

“Kahlan?” Cara asked, jumping to her feet and pulling her wife up and into her arms. “Press the stopwatch, quickly.”

Kahlan reached into her pocket only to find it empty. “It’s gone,” she said, with her lips parted and eyes open wide. “It must have fallen out when we ran into each other.”

Cara shook her head. “We can’t get out of here without it.” She tried looking around for it but it was too dark.

“The spyglass, oh, and one of your agiels,” Kahlan said, turning around so that Cara could reach into her pack. “Remind me to raise Sophie’s allowance.”

Cara’s entire expression changed at the thought of her daughters. “The girls, how are they?” she asked, her voice breaking a bit.

“Growing up fast and missing you terribly.” She cupped Cara’s cheeks and pulled her into a deep kiss. “I’m so angry at you that I’m tempted to feed you to that thing but I’d miss you too much and so would our children.” Her wife gave her a sheepish look and stared down at her own boots. “Come, let’s find the stopwatch and get out of here.”

“It could be anywhere,” Cara said. “You stay here, I’ll go ––”

Kahlan cocked her brow and her hands went to her hips, cutting her wife off before she could finish. “Really? You think that’s going to happen?” Cara rolled her eyes and threw up her arms, admitting defeat.

The two of them skulked around the corridor hoping the stopwatch hadn’t landed anywhere near their foe. “Spirits, that is one big chicken,” Kahlan said to her wife when she caught a glimpse of the creature. She pressed the spyglass to her eye, and with as much stealthiness as they could manage, they moved along the wall trying to spot the device. “Over there,” Kahlan said, pointing with her chin, “I think that’s it.” At that very moment, the beast released a blood-curdling screech and spat out a mouthful of flames. With a swipe of its feathery tail, it then knocked the wall down in its entirety. It was all they could do to keep from being buried by the rubble.

Ever resourceful, Cara used the beast’s movement and the chaos of falling debris as an opportunity to move in close enough to grab the stopwatch –– and she almost did. Except that the gigantic thing spread its wings, trapping Cara in a corner and opening its steel beak with every intention of swallowing her whole. Cara struck it with her agiel and took a swipe at it with the axe she was holding in her other hand, but it was to no avail. The monster closed its beak and Cara was gone.

 

***

  
Kahlan, who was still standing amidst the rubble, gasped for air and pressed both her hands to the center of her chest. “Cara!” she screamed when the air returned to her lungs, and quickly sprang into action, releasing one of her daggers with the aim of taking out the beast’s eye, and it would have –– had its eyelid not been made of steel. The beast retaliated by sweeping her feet out from under her with its tail, but Kahlan would not be deterred. She rose to her feet –– albeit a bit gimpy –– and rushed at it in what to an onlooker would have seemed like a comical scene. It looked every bit like a woman singlehandedly attempting to affect a mountain.

In this second attempt, she managed to grab onto one of its feathers, trying to make her way to its beak in the hopes of prying Cara out of its mouth. As plans go, it was an awful one but she was out of alternatives. The beast ruffled its feathers sending her flying through the air and slamming her against a stone wall. Her hand went to the back of her head, grimacing from both the pain and the certainty that her wife was lost to her forever. In what should have been an impossibility for a beast that size, the Minokawa spun around to face her and lifted one of its feet with every intention of squashing her like a bug. Kahlan rolled out of the way, earning herself even more of its wrath.

When the beast resorted to spewing flames out of its mouth, she knew it was over. She stood there for a moment with tears in her eyes, feeling like a helpless child. It was the thought of her own children and of everything Cara had gone through to bring their eldest into this world that caused the blood rage to rise in her with a force far greater than it ever had before. The very walls shook from the force of her magic. Even the veins in her face, arms, and hands were bulging as if about to burst through her skin. Whatever internal mechanism that allowed her to control the release of her magic so as to prevent damage to her physical form had ceased to function: she was caught in a magical free-fall that would likely be the end of her.

 

 

 

  * [Post a new comment](http://fortunata13.livejournal.com/28267.html?mode=reply#add_comment)
  * 0 comments




	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is tough to summarize. Let's see... there's wind and kittens and a lot of talk about a chicken. Oh, and we finally meet the woman who caused this entire mess. Her motives are both heartbreaking and surprising. Cara and Kahlan struggle against their instincts in order to set a good example for there daughter. There's also a bit of air travel. It will all make sense when you read it –– I hope.

“What is that?” Denna asked when she felt a prickling sensation forcing its way through her leathers.

“That’s my mother losing her temper,” Carina said. “All of you step away.”

Denna grabbed Donovan by the collar and took hold of Lucia’s wrist. “But the Princesses,” Donovan said.

“Go, all of you. That’s an order, soldier.” Donovan swallowed hard and obeyed his commander.

Sophie and Carina found themselves surrounded by over a hundred men that should have been falling to their knees begging for the privilege of serving their mistress, but they weren’t. Both girls could feel their mother’s magic thick in the air and yet their foes were still standing. “You were right,” Sophie said, “there’s magic at play.”

The two of them stood side by side, prepared to die, for they were completely surrounded. “I love you,” Carina said to her little sister with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry I failed you.”

Sophie took in a deep breath just as her sister was about to be run through with a sword and lifted her arms with her palms facing the sky. Her eyes were swirling, but not black as they would in confession; they were swirling in a translucent gray color that matched the clouds above them. She opened her mouth, releasing a deafening sound that shook the leaves off the surrounding trees and sent their foes flying through the air and then disappearing into the ether. She then fell at her sister’s feet, wide-eyed with an expression of sheer bewilderment on her face.

“What was that?” Carina asked, helping her sister to her feet and sustaining her weight with an arm around her waist.

Sophie calmly said, “Sorceress’s Wind.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Carina said.

“That’s because I just coined the term,” she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Remind me to add it to the log at the Confessors’ Library.” All Carina could do was laugh and hug her sister.

“That, Princess,” Denna said, walking up to Sophie with Lucia and Donovan on either side of her, “was Rahl magic. I can taste it in the back of my throat.”

“Is that what that is?” Carina said, scrunching her nose and flapping her jaw. “It tastes sort of sour-y.”

“Interesting. This dispels the myth that only male heirs inherit Rahl magic,” Sophie said. “But wait, all those men, did I…”

Denna saw the look in the young Confessor’s eyes and quickly stepped in. “That’s an old conjurer’s trick. Those men were an illusion.” Carina met Denna’s gaze and knew instantly that the former Mord’Sith was lying. But the truth, in this case, served no one. She and Denna exchanged glances. That was the end of it.

“Thank the Spirits,” Sophie said, releasing a sigh of relief –– her expression quickly changing when she realized she could no longer feel her mother’s magic. “Our mothers,” she said, filled with anguish. “What do we do?”

“Princesses, look.” Donovan said, stretching out his arm and pointing toward the sky. “It’s the eclipse.” The five of them watched as the moon eclipsed the sun and when it was over there was no sign of a hole –– or of Cara and Kahlan. None of them could decide whether this was good or bad, and so they remained silent.

***

“Spit her out,” Kahlan said, in a voice that sounded nothing like her own, lunging at the beast as if it were one of the many D’Haran soldiers she and Cara faced during the war. Only this was no soldier, this was a monster about to give her the same treatment it had given her wife. Kahlan, however, had no intention of backing down. When the beast lifted its foot to squash her, she grabbed on to its gnarly toes and watched as its eyes became swirls of black. The monster promptly opened its beak and, releasing the most disgusting sound Kahlan had ever heard in her life, it regurgitated Cara whole. There she was, looking up at Kahlan covered in the digestive fluids of a gigantic chicken and Kahlan still threw her arms around her. “Spirits, you smell awful,” she said, and kissed her anyway.

Cara turned to the beast then back to Kahlan with a quizzical look on her face. “I confessed it,” Kahlan said with a shrug. “You can pet it if you’d like. Its feathers are quite soft.”

She rolled her eyes and laughed. Taking Kahlan in her arms, Cara sat back against the wall with Kahlan’s head resting on her chest –– and the Minokawa gazing lovingly at its mistress. She knew confessing that thing must have left her wife depleted of all energy, thus she decided to indulge in the pleasure of watching Kahlan drift off to sleep in her arms for a few minutes.

***

“How could you keep this from me?” Kahlan asked the moment her eyes opened –– sounding more hurt than angry.

Cara’s arms dropped to her sides and her chin to her chest, as she felt Kahlan pulling away from her. “You want to do this now?” Cara said, shaking her head.

“I do,” Kahlan said, crossing her arms on her chest. “You had no right to do this to me, to our children. Do you have any idea what you put us through?”

Cara rested her elbows on her knees, and held her head in her hands. “It was stupid of me, I know. But Kahlan, I – I never thought it would come to this. I hoped it would all go away.”

“What, magically?” Kahlan said, throwing her arms up in frustration. “You know better than anyone that things don’t just go away. And besides, Cara, we don’t lie to each other and we don’t keep secrets from each other.”

“I never lied to you.”

“A lie of omission is still a lie. How am I supposed to trust you?” Kahlan said, rising to her feet. “You’re my wife, Cara, the mother of my children. How can I ever trust you again?”

Those words felt like a blow to the center of her chest. Even before they’d fallen in love, Kahlan had never questioned Cara’s loyalty. “Kahlan, I’m sorry. I did the best I knew how at the time. You and the girls, what you’ve given me, it’s more than I ever deserved, I know that. I wanted the three of you to have a perfect life. I wanted you and the girls to feel safe and happy. I thought I could do that but I failed.”

“Cara, you didn’t fail, you just shut me out. Together we would have found a way, but going behind my back, hiding things for years, I just don’t understand.”

Cara covered her face with her hands. One bad decision, one very bad decision was going to cost her her marriage. “You’re right,” she said, admitting defeat, “I can’t expect you to share your life with someone you can’t trust. When we return to Aydindril, I’ll talk to the girls.”

“Talk to the girls about what?” Kahlan asked, furrowing her brow.

“About the dissolution of our marriage. It isn’t what I want but I know it’s what I deserve.”

Kahlan tipped her head and wrinkled her nose. “Are you insane? I’m not dissolving our marriage. First of all, I can’t live without you, and secondly, our daughters would probably kill me. We’re a family, Cara, we need each other, and for the next six months we’ll need you to clean the stables.”

Cara thought to protest, but instead she jumped to her feet and pulled her wife into her arms and kissed her. “I love you and I give you my word, I’ll never do something so foolish again,” she vowed. “Oh, and remind me to purchase a new pair of work boots.”

“Now we can go,” Kahlan said, with a tip of her head and nod as she reached for the stopwatch that lay on the floor between the Minokawa’s unsightly toes, and pressed down on the knob to activate it. She led them down to the end of the corridor to where the maze should have been –– only it wasn’t there anymore. “This can’t be right,” she said when just a few paces in front of them, the ground began to tremble, opening up into an enormous abyss that seemingly went on forever. “Unless…” she trailed off, craning her neck to look down, “it’s the big hole. The woman must have known somehow that the eclipse would reopen the rift today. That’s why she waited all these years.”

“That bitch,” Cara said, “I’m going to kill her, then I’m going to bring her back and kill her again –– over and over. That hole must be where the trinket she wants me to retrieve is. When she said the ‘depths of the earth,’ I thought she was speaking metaphorically.”

“You’ve got to be joking,” Kahlan said. “Now what do we do? And why on earth would that madwoman think you capable of accomplishing such a task?”

“I’m a legend,” Cara said, raising her palms to the sky.

Kahlan rolled her eyes, “Come on, legend, I have an idea.”

“You do?” Cara asked incredulously.

They walked halfway down the corridor and much to Cara’s dismay, Kahlan called out to the Minokawa. At the sound of its mistress’s voice, it ripped through walls –– and everything else that stood between it and its mistress and lay down at her feet. “It’s like having a big, dumb dog that looks like a chicken,” Cara said, staring up at the enormous thing.

With Cara providing her with a much needed boost, Kahlan climbed atop the beast and stretched out her hand for her wife to join her. Because she was already in enough trouble, Cara reluctantly accepted the invitation. “In we go,” Kahlan said.

“Why?” Cara said, “The beast can fly us to the other side.”

Kahlan shook her head. “We can’t. What if the trinket, as you call it, is dangerous? We can’t just leave it here.” Cara rolled her eyes: Kahlan always had to do the right thing. “Fine, but if we die, you’re joining me in the Underworld.”

Kahlan smiled and kissed her on the lips. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, my love.”

With that, the Minokawa dove into the abyss and spread its wings, gliding them into the center of the earth and what they saw left them breathless. There was a crystal forest with trees swaying in the wind –– its leaves made of emeralds. “Cara, it’s the fabled magical forest of the Old World. It must have gotten sucked into the abyss in the failed attempt to penetrate the barrier, just as Carina said.” Further down, they encountered a land covered in snow with a sky of pink, twinkling stars, with not one but two moons. “Spirits, if our daughters could see this,” Kahlan said, feeling Cara’s lips press to the back of her neck. “And look at all of these objects.”

“Archeological treasures, I suppose,” Cara said. “Can you imagine if Sophie were here? We’d need both armies to force her to come home.”

“Wait, what are we looking for?” Kahlan asked, so lost in the wonders around her that she’d forgotten their purpose there.

“A box of some sort,” Cara said.

“Will retrieving it kill us?” Kahlan asked.

Cara considered the question for a long moment. “Maybe, but I’m hoping it won’t.” She craned her neck to look further down, and said, “I think that’s it. There, on that ledge near the bottom,” Cara said, looking down at a small wooden box surrounded by a colony of tiny white kittens. “Good thing the girls aren’t here. We’d wind up with a Palace full of hairballs.” Kahlan tipped her head; her wife was absolutely right. Cara held on to Kahlan with one hand and reached down to take hold of the box with her other, then tucked it under her belt.

Kahlan urged her new pet upward until they were back at the corridor. “Press the stopwatch again,” Cara said. The maze reappeared, only this time everything around them, with the exception of the blinking walls, was eerily still, and the air so thick, they could not walk through it.

“I think I know how this works,” Kahlan said. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.” Cara nodded. The next time the wall closest to them blinked, they jumped through it. “We’re in the realm of time,” she said. “The stopwatch allows us to move through it without losing our place in space.” Cara had no idea what her wife was talking about. When she’d secured the stopwatch from an old witch woman, she hadn’t given Cara any instruction other than ‘push down on the button.’ “All we have to do is make sure we don’t affect anything around us. Don’t touch anything.” This was as odd as anything Cara had ever imagined. There were people and objects all around them but it was as if they were frozen in time. The two of them moved about gingerly until they reached a door. If Kahlan was right, it was the same door she’d walked through to get there.

“Wait,” Cara said, “How do you know any of this?”

Kahlan tipped her head. “I don’t. Our youngest daughter is a genius and she rattled off an explanation as to how the stopwatch works. I wish I would have paid closer attention but you know how she gets when she’s excited.”

“Ah yes, she talks at a rate of about a league a minute,” Cara said, recalling all of the times her youngest had left her head spinning due to her exuberance at having learned something new.

“We could be in for a bit of swim,” Kahlan said.

“Good, it will get the monster-vomit stench off us.”

“True, but this dress isn’t exactly swimwear. Just save me if you notice I’m drowning.” Kahlan said, opening the door with Cara’s hand in her own and diving into the water.

***

It wasn’t until a half hour later that Donovan broke their silence. “Commander,” he said to Carina. Why the boy didn’t just call her by her name, she did not know, but she preferred ‘Commander’ to ‘Princess’. “I think we’re being watched.” Carina pursed her lips and nodded, then looked over at her sister who was closest to the area Donovan pointed at with a slight tip of his chin. Eye contact sufficed for Sophie to understand her sister’s meaning.

Seconds later she emerged with one of her daggers at the throat of a woman wearing a dark cloak and a scarf wrapped around her face –– in the middle of summer. “That was too easy,” Carina said to Donovan, “You and Sophie secure the suspect.”

She then took a few steps to stand next to Denna, and said, “I take it you feel it as well.” Denna raised her brow and gave her a nod. “Let’s go,” Carina said. With that, they took off running, and just beyond the spot where Sophie had captured their foe, they found the woman’s mage. He was uttering an incantation that neither of them could discern and had surrounded himself with a protective web of magic that expanded with every sound that left his throat. When he caught a glimpse of them it was already too late, for Carina and Denna raised their palms, pushing back his magical web and causing it to implode, leaving no trace of him.

Carina stared at the spot where he had been a second earlier, unable to get her legs to move. Denna took hold of her elbow, and said, “Come on, your sister and Donovan could be in trouble.” It took Carina several seconds to register her words, but after releasing a deep sigh, she nodded.

When they got back to the others, Denna walked over to where Donovan was guarding the woman and, unceremoniously, ripped the scarf off her face. “She’s no longer a suspect,” Denna said, “I can confirm that she’s the perpetrator.” She had a mind to kill her on the spot, but she decided that her former sister and the Mother Confessor had first dibs. “Your wizard is dead,” she said to the woman, “and I suspect soon you will be, too.” Realizing she’d been defeated, the woman began to scream and rant, pulling at the rope with which Donovan had secured her to a tree. When she saw Carina’s face looking back at her own, her rage only grew. “Donovan, gag her,” Denna said. “If you don’t shut her up, I’ll kill her myself.” With a nod, Donovan picked up the woman’s scarf from the ground and used it as a gag.

“I was just a baby,” Carina said to Sophie, “why does she hate me so much?”

Sophie put her arm around her sister’s shoulder. “This has nothing to do with you. It’s just as Mom said, you were a pawn in this sick ploy of hers.”

Just as Denna was walking back to stand next to them, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that caused her to turn to face the lake. When she made out the two bobbing heads emerging from the water, she shook her head and laughed. “Damn if those two aren’t impossible to kill,” she said. “Children, your mommies are home,” she said.

The dash to the lake was a veritable stampede. Donovan – uniform, boots, and all – dove into the lake to help them out of the water. The girls’ eager arms greeted them with so much enthusiasm that they nearly fell backwards into the lake.

“Moms,” Sophie said, wrapping her arms around both her mothers.

“Is there room for one more?” Carina asked, pulling Cara into her arms, and holding her so tightly Cara though she might crack a rib.

“Let me look at you two,” Cara said, “you’re even more beautiful than I remembered. I haven’t the words to express how much I missed you.”

A rapid succession of questions followed, along with more hugs, and even tears. Cara and Kahlan were still working on catching their breath but that did not deter the others from speaking. The two of them gazed at their rambunctious companions, then turned toward each other and pressed their lips into a passionate kiss. Fortunately, Lucia had the presence of mind to guard the prisoner while the others fawned over the Mother Confessor and her Mord’Sith.

“Mother Confessor, General,” Donovan said, handing them both blankets he produced from his saddlebag. “You can take off your clothes behind those bushes. I’ll build a fire to dry them.”

Kahlan smiled as he walked away. “You chose well, my love. Donovan is a wonderful young man.”

“I trained him myself,” Cara said, as she and her wife disappeared behind the bushes, returning shortly afterward wrapped in blankets.

The jubilance of the reunion, however, took a dark turn when Kahlan noticed Lucia guarding the woman who’d caused her family so much turmoil. “Is that her?” Kahlan asked, seeking confirmation from her wife –– already Kahlan felt anger rising into her chest. With a tip of her head, Cara confirmed that it was indeed.

She kissed Kahlan on the lips then rested her forehead on hers. “Let’s focus on our girls. We’ll deal with her as soon as our clothes are dry.” Kahlan smiled; this was an unexpected role reversal as it was she who usually had to reel in her wife in these types of situations.

“I love you,” Kahlan said, pressing their bodies together and kissing her tenderly on the lips.

“We’ll have to get those two a room,” Denna said to Sophie who blushed furiously.

“I could have lived a long and happy life without that mental image,” Sophie replied, delivering a gentle shove as she walked over to her parents.

Cara and Kahlan hovered in front of the fire with their daughters at their side. Carina rested her head on Kahlan’s shoulder and Sophie on Cara’s. They stayed there in a comfortable silence, all four of them keenly aware of how perilously close they’d been to losing it all. The girls were in that tender age of becoming –– no longer children, not yet adults. This wasn’t a transition they could easily navigate without these two women who were their mothers, yes, but so much more. Cara and Kahlan were their teachers, and their champions, and their protectors. They’d given the girls everything that they themselves had been denied by the cruelest of circumstances.

Denna and Donovan watched the four of them from a short distance away –– both of them, during this journey, having developed an overwhelming need to keep this family well. “It’s a good day, Madame Denna.”

Denna tilted her head and nodded. “It is, soldier. It is.”

***

Upon discarding the blankets and changing into their own clothes, they were no longer joyful parents reuniting with their children. They were warriors seeking vengeance for the crimes perpetrated on their family. Cara and Kahlan stalked toward the woman who caused all of this in long, purposeful strides that instantly changed the tenor of the celebration. All their companions fell silent and the air became thick with palpable rage.

Carina started to take a step toward her mothers but quickly thought better of it. Instead, she pulled her little sister into her arms so that Sophie’s face was pressed into her shoulder. “I don’t want you to see this,” she said, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on her mothers. Never one to succeed at hiding her emotions, Carina’s anguish was on full display. It was Cara who for just an instant caught sight of her eldest daughter’s face, and in it she saw a question, a question as to what, exactly, her mothers were. Cara swallowed her rage and met her wife’s gaze with softer eyes, knowing that this was a defining moment for their family. Kahlan, who had spent weeks thinking of little else than eviscerating this woman who had used her newborn daughter as a pawn and brought turmoil into what had previously been a home filled with joy, needed no words to understand her wife’s meaning. Kahlan shut her eyes for a moment. What Cara was asking of her went against her every instinct. This was her wife, these were her children into whose lives this woman had brought so much grief. Kahlan wanted swift justice and she wanted to deliver it via her freshly sharpened daggers. She knew Cara would not go against her wishes, but she also knew her wife was right. She loosened her grip on her daggers, and allowed her arms to hang at her sides.

“Sergeant Wells,” Cara said, with Kahlan standing beside her, “oversee the transport of the prisoner to Aydindril where she is to be tried for crimes against the royal family.” Donovan looked over his shoulder trying to find this sergeant who shared his surname but saw no one. Cara rolled her eyes. “I just promoted you, boy, now get her out of my sight.”

Carina released her sister and smiled. “Our mothers are heroes, Sophie.”

“Yes, they are,” her sister said replied, “and so are you.” Carina shrugged off the compliment and gave her sister a gentle shove as she walked away.

Cara and Kahlan turned to walk away but Cara suddenly turned back, and said to the woman, “You played with the life of our child, and for what, for this?” Cara said holding up the box she and Kahlan had retrieved from the abyss.

The woman’s eyes widened and she fought against her restraints when she caught sight of it. Cara lifted it up to the woman’s face but kept it just beyond her reach. “Give it to me,” she said in a muffled voice, shaking with rage.

Kahlan turned her face away for a moment, sickened by the sight of this madwoman. “Allow her to speak,” Kahlan said to Cara, who reluctantly removed her gag.

“It’s mine,” the woman raged. “It’s mine!”

Cara opened the box and in it she found a child’s toy –– an orange and blue spinning top with a string neatly wrapped around it as if waiting for an eager child to release it. The top was in pristine condition, and alongside it a small parchment obviously scribbled in a child’s hand, that read, ‘Property of Thaddeus Bogg’.

“I was a mother, too, once,” the woman said, her voice dripping with venom. “I was a mother, too.” She repeated the phrase over and over as Donovan cut the rope that held her in place and dragged her away.

Kahlan buried her face in Cara’s chest. The woman’s grief had driven her mad and retrieving a lost toy had become her only purpose for living. “Wait,” Kahlan said, still unable to look at her. “Give it to her.” Donovan’s fist went to his chest, and he followed his mistress’s order. The woman took it between her bound hands and somehow managed to release it.

“Step back,” Cara said to Kahlan and the others thinking perhaps they had underestimated the toy’s capabilities –– and she was right. For when the top began to spin, suddenly before them was a translucent screen projecting images, images of the lives of those who had been lost when the abyss first opened. There was the woman, or rather a younger version of her, in the crystal forest of the Old World –– her son and her mate at her side. And she was joyful and kind as were all the people around her. A white tiger lay beside them nursing her cubs as young Thaddeus Bogg looked on in wonderment. There were winged horses and unicorns and even fay people just as Kahlan and the girls had read in the Confessors’ Library, only they weren’t fairytales as they had thought. Those items Cara referred to as archeological treasures were remnants of a lost generation. The images somehow recorded by the spinning top were all that was left of them. As the woman gazed at the screen, her features softened and her face took on the gentle qualities of the woman she had been, the one who lived in a beautiful, magical land with friends and a loving family.

When it was over, she said, “Do with me what you will. The beast and I are all that is left of that life, but this,” she said bending down to pick up the top and wind the string around it, “is proof that we lived.”

The others had all fallen silent. Carina, who had been standing next to Sophie with their arms threaded, released her sister and with tears running down her cheeks, she said, “I’m sorry for your loss, but it wasn’t our fault. I was just a baby, and I needed my mothers just as you needed your son.” The woman stared blankly at the object in her hand as if she hadn’t heard a word.

“Take her away,” Kahlan said to Donovan in a small voice.

Denna could not decide if it was weakness or strength that caused Cara and Kahlan to spare the woman’s life –– at least temporarily –– but it was clear to her that they did not want their daughters to look upon them as cold-blooded killers. As someone who for most of her life held cold-blooded killers in high regard –– and counted herself among them –– she would have likely handled the situation differently, but given the cast of characters, it made sense somehow.

While still caught in those musings, she felt a strong hand gripping her shoulder a little too enthusiastically. “You mean to tell me my wife and daughters haven’t seen fit to kill you yet?” Cara asked.

Sophie, who was standing just a few paces behind them with Kahlan beside her, quickly chimed in. “Of course not,” she said with a scowl, “Denna’s a family friend.” Cara looked over at her wife in disbelief and was met with a shrug and a nod.

“You can release the death grip on my shoulder now,” Denna said, “Given my porcelain complexion, I bruise easily.” With a smirk on her face, Cara dug her fingers into Denna’s flesh just a little bit deeper before releasing her grip.

“So, Mommy, how did you manage to defeat the Minokawa?” Carina asked, as she and Cara readied the horses.

“The Mino-what?” Cara asked, scrunching her nose.

“The Minokawa,” she repeated. “The beast that was tasked with guarding the passage.”

“Is that what that gigantic chicken is called?” Carina nodded. “Your mother confessed it,” Cara said matter-of-factly.

“You’ve got to be joking,” Denna said, rolling her eyes.

“It swallowed my wife,” Kahlan said, throwing up her arms. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Wait, so it’s still alive?” Carina asked, with a glint in her eyes. Kahlan nodded.

Carina took hold of her mothers and dragged them away from the others. “Mommies, we need to talk.”

“What’s that all about?” Lucia asked Sophie.

Sophie pursed her lips and pinched her chin between her thumb and index finger. “I’m not sure,” she said, “but knowing my sister, it’s bound to be interesting.”

“What?” Cara and Kahlan said in unison so loudly that the others all turned around thinking something had happened. Carina huddled her mothers in closer and gestured with her hands, constantly looking between them.

“Well, she’s definitely trying to convince them of something. Of what, I have no idea,” Sophie said, “but I’m sure she’ll get her way. Carina can be very persuasive. In about thirty seconds, my Mom’s hands will go to the sides of her head, and my other Mom will sigh and give in to whatever it is my sister wants.”

Lucia grinned. “You’re awfully sure of yourself, Princess.”

“I’ve known these people my entire life. Here, help me count down.” Sure enough, within thirty seconds Cara and Kahlan relented and walked off with their eldest daughter.

“Madame Denna,” Donovan said in a small voice, blushing by the mere act of speaking to the former Mord’Sith without any of the others there. “I have to take the prisoner back to town and make arrangements for her transport. Can I trouble you to watch over the royal family?”

Denna smirked and rested her hand on his chest allowing it to trail down to his toned midriff. “Why, Donovan, you can trouble me for anything you’d like. In fact, you have an open invitation to my business establishment. I’ll even see to your needs personally.” Like most D’Haran soldiers, Donovan had heard many stories about the services Denna provided, and while the offer was more than a little enticing, the boy, who hadn’t as much as held hands with a girl, smiled politely and scurried off at a high speed. Denna shook her head and laughed.

Quite unexpectedly, a swooshing sound accompanied by foreboding darkness fell upon them. When they looked up, there was Carina bursting through the clouds perched upon the biggest chicken in all of Creation –– the shadow of its humongous wings, the source of the darkness.

“How on earth?” Denna asked.

“Retractable dome inside the realm,” Cara and Kahlan said in unison again.

“Leave it to the miracle child,” Denna said, shaking her head.

“Sophie,” Carina called out as she urged the beast to the ground, “hop on.” Without hesitation, her little sister took hold of her hand and joined her. “I told you your dream of flying atop a winged creature would come true.”

“You are stark raving mad,” Sophie said with a grin on her face, “and I adore you.”

Cara and Kahlan cringed and clung to each other. Their daughters were soaring through the air on the back of a creature that only an hour earlier had swallowed their mother.

“Your children are maniacs,” Denna said. Cara and Kahlan obviously concurred for neither of them argued otherwise.

When their joy ride came to an end, both girls ran into their mothers’ arms. “Moms, that was so much fun. When we get back to Aydindril we’ll have to build a proper structure to house Mino,” Sophie said, “The clearing behind the rear gates will be perfect. She’ll be very happy there.”

Cara and Kahlan were rendered speechless: it was the fuzzy black kitten all over again –– only several thousand times bigger and not as cuddly. “How does she know it’s a she?” Cara leaned in and asked.

“I keep telling you she’s a genius,” Kahlan said, echoing Carina’s words.

“Where to?” Cara asked once Sophie had returned her new pet to its resting place, and the horses were ready.

“To the Anders house,” Carina said, “Lucia invited all of us over for dinner. Her father’s a very good cook.”

Cara glanced over at Kahlan who nodded and smiled. “Off to see my old friend Omar then.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the end of this journey approaches, the lovely Amnell women say goodbye to their new friends and head back to Aydindril where they are met with some unexpected house guests. Expect some family drama.

When they arrived at the Anders’ home, Omar greeted Cara with an embrace and a genuine grin. “Old friend,” he said, “I knew you’d manage to get through this ordeal.”

“Thanks to my wife,” Cara said, leaning in to kiss Kahlan on the temple.

“And thanks to your research,” Kahlan said to him. “My entire family owes you a debt of gratitude.”

“No such debt exists. You saved our lives.” He looked over at Lucia who smiled as she chatted with Sophie. “My girl is all I have left in this world; were it not for you, I would have lost her long ago. But enough talk of such things, our meal is ready and you, old friend, look as if you’ve lost some weight.”

On the dining room table they found a veritable feast. “Omar, everything looks delicious.”

Omar waved off the compliment and urged them to the table, and as soon as they all sat down, a knock on the door had Cara on her feet, heading to the door. “Sergeant Wells,” Cara said, with a tip of her head.

Young Donovan’s fist promptly went to his chest, earning himself an eye roll from Carina. “General, the prisoner is under twenty-four-hour guard and a wagon will be prepared for her transport by morning.”

“Good work, Sergeant. Now sit down and eat,” she said, giving him a pat on the back.

Predictably, he walked around the table to stand beside Carina. “Commander Mason, may I?” he asked, gesturing to the empty chair next to the young Mord’Sith, who in response kicked him on the shin for calling her by her self-appointed rank in front of her parents.

Cara and Kahlan looked at each other, then at their eldest. “Commander?” they said, in unison –– again. “We really need to stop doing that,” Cara leaned in and whispered to Kahlan who nodded in agreement.

Denna smirked at the sight of Carina squirming in her chair. “It’s a long story,” Denna said, interjecting on the Mord’Sith’s behalf. “I’m sure the miracle child will tell her mommies all about it on the way home.” Carina narrowed her eyes and glared at Denna for using that ridiculous moniker, but truth be told, she was grateful for the timely save.

From that point forward, the evening was a jubilant one with laughs all around. All of them, even Denna, enjoyed the family atmosphere. Not for a single moment did she feel like an outsider, although it did surprise her that Cara so easily accepted her into the fold. Her former sister had changed, yet she was very much the same, and the girls loved Cara just as much as they loved Kahlan. It was obvious to her, and suddenly, Kahlan’s dogged determination to get her wife back made perfect sense. She and Cara fit together like an intricate jigsaw puzzle and, what’s more, there was nothing either of them would not do to maintain the perfect fit that must always exist between them.

“Spirits, Omar, if I have another bite, I fear for the horse tasked with carrying me back to Aydindril.” Omar smiled. Kahlan, as well as the others, had served themselves multiple helpings.

Cara turned to her host with the intention of complimenting him on the meal, but out of the corner of her eye noticed something that left her speechless for a moment: Sophie and Lucia were holding hands under the table –– a clear violation of the look but don’t touch rule she and Kahlan had put into place the moment the girls hit puberty.

Noticing the expression on her mother’s face, Carina followed her gaze and when she determined where it fell, not knowing what else to do, she blurted out, “Sophie has Sorceress’s Wind.”

Kahlan furrowed her brow and asked, “Is your stomach upset, baby?”

The girl was mortified by Kahlan’s assumption –– in front of Lucia, no less. “Not that kind of wind, Mom.” She placed her elbow on the table and rested her forehead in her hand.

“She means Rahl magic,” Denna said.

“What?” Cara and Kahlan said in perfect sync.

“Do they always do that?” Denna asked Carina, who shrugged and tipped her head in response.

“Baby, is that true? How did it manifest and how do you know it’s Rahl magic?” Kahlan asked.

“It manifested as wind, and again, not that kind of wind. I know that it was Rahl magic because Denna and Carina said they could taste it.”

Cara’s eyes widened. “Was it a sour-y taste?” she asked Carina, who nodded in response. “Definitely Rahl magic,” Cara said to Kahlan. “The aftertaste is horrible.” Denna and Carina nodded in agreement.

“Well, we’ll have to talk to Zedd when we get back to Aydindril. He was under the impression that only male heirs inherited magic,” Kahlan said.

“That’s probably because under Darken Rahl no female heirs lived long enough for their magic to manifest,” Denna said.

“Denna’s right,” Cara said, “Of the many children he fathered, it was the girls he feared the most.”

Carina grimaced and shook her head. “That’s horrible,” she said. “The House of Rahl has changed since Dad took the throne, but there is much work left to do.” Somehow Denna knew that the two Princesses would be the ones to implement those changes and they would do it sooner rather than later.

After all the dishes were washed and the leftovers packed for their journey back to Aydindril, Denna stepped outside, and with a nudge from her wife, Cara soon followed. She found her former sister gazing up at the night sky. “So tell me, how did you do it?” she asked when she felt Cara’s presence. “How did you manage to build this life for yourself?”

The question surprised Cara but she deemed it worthy of an honest response. “I never forgot what it felt like to be loved. Even after being broken, the memory of being loved by my family never left me. It was that memory that made me certain that someday I would be more than a Mord’Sith. And when Kahlan came into my life, she picked up all the pieces of me and made me whole again.”

Denna turned to face her. “I never knew love, even before I was taken. My mother died giving birth to me and my father was a no-good drunkard who beat me mercilessly every day. Believe it or not, being taken was my salvation.” Never before had she opened up to anyone about her childhood.

“But you know love now,” Cara said. “My girls love you and it’s impossible to not love them. Perhaps this journey is a new beginning for you.” With that, Cara went back inside and into Kahlan’s arms, leaving Denna to think on her former sister’s words.

Although the space was limited, it was agreed that they would spend the night, and return to the inn to pick up their things in the morning. Cara and Kahlan were happy to share what used to be Lucia’s old room with Sophie and Carina. It had been years since the girls had stopped raiding their mothers’ bed. Denna and Lucia slept in Omar’s room, leaving Donovan to share the living room sofa with Omar whose snores reverberated throughout the house.

***

Having given up on sleep well before dawn, by the time the others awoke Donovan had already retrieved their belongings and made arrangements for a transport wagon that would deliver their prisoner to Aydindril. Carina, who among the Mason-Rahl-Amnells had always been the early riser, found him saddling the horses. “Did you fall out of bed, Sergeant, or did Mr. Anders’ snores keep you up all night?”

The boy grinned and tipped his head. “The latter, Commander, definitely the latter.”

“I’m sure my mothers will arrange for some time off for you,” she said, as she turned to go back inside.

“Princess, I mean Commander ––“

“Carina, Donovan, my name is Carina,” she said, releasing a sigh.

Donovan nodded but still could not manage to say her name. “Well, I’ve been thinking, and…well, when we return to Aydindril, well, I would like to talk to the Mother Confessor and the General, and to the Lord Rahl, of course, about well,” he said, then paused for a long moment as his face turned increasingly red.

Carina’s eyes widened and she took several steps back. “Donovan, if you’re about to say what I think you’re about to say, don’t say it.”

The boy blinked and furrowed his brow. “But Princess, how can I know if what I’m about to say is what you think I’m about to say?”

“If it involves my parents and…a word that begins with the letter w and ends with an o, don’t say it.” She raised both her palms and waved her hands as she spoke. “Just don’t say it.”

Donovan slumped his shoulders and his chin went to his chest, looking as dejected as every other boy who had ever developed a crush on Carina. “Yes, Princess,” he mumbled with a pout and turned to walk away.

“Wait,” she said, “look, it’s not you. Why, any girl would be lucky to have you.” She paced in front of him a couple of times hoping he’d go away, but he didn’t. “Here’s the problem. I, well, I really like breasts and you don’t have any. There are other parts of the female anatomy that also interest me although my mommies have made it perfectly clear that I am to stay away from those other parts until further notice. Aside from that, boys are hairy and their skin isn’t soft and they don’t smell as good as girls.” Donovan stood before her without saying a word. “But,” Carina said, pinching her chin between her thumb and forefinger, “when my mommies decide that I am ready to start testing the waters, if you will, I could use a wingman.”

Donovan could not help but chuckle at the suggestion. “Wingman?” he asked, shaking his head.

“There is, of course, another option. Sophie and I have always lamented not having a big brother.” It was a complete lie, but just as she predicted, Donovan’s fist went to his chest and the smile returned to his lips.

“Carina, Donovan,” Kahlan called out from the doorway, “come break your fast.”

“What was that all about?” Cara asked Donovan once he stepped inside.

Donovan thought for a moment, then said, “I don’t have breasts.”

Cara scrunched her nose and shook her head. “Forget I asked, I don’t want to know.”

Throughout their meal, Sophie and Lucia gazed at each other across the table, and Carina and Donovan for once seemed completely at ease with each other. Kahlan, however, had something on her mind that needed to be discussed with Omar. Since Sophie insisted that the Minokawa was now a member of the family, the passage between worlds was in need of a new guardian. Her plan was a rather ambitious one that would also require someone skilled in magic. She’d already discussed it with Cara who agreed that it was a logical solution.

As soon as they finished their meal, Kahlan asked, “Omar, what plans do you have for the future?” Cara rolled her eyes. Sometimes Kahlan’s choice of words, in her opinion, was just plain silly.

The blank look on Omar’s face confirmed Cara’s suspicion. “Omar, since the big chicken is coming home with us, the passage needs a new guardian. Do you want the job or not?” She gave Kahlan a knowing look, canted her hips, and awaited a response.

“It’s a bit more intricate than that,” Kahlan said. “The abyss is filled with artifacts that deserve to be salvaged and catalogued. Perhaps there will be enough items to warrant a museum in memory of all of those who lost their lives. There’s even a colony of kittens living down there.”

“Kittens,” Sophie said with far too much enthusiasm. “Where’s there, Mother?”

“Sophie…” Kahlan said.

“We’ll take the kittens,” Lucia said, earning herself an approving smile from Sophie. “Right, Dad?”

Omar scratched his head. “I suppose,” he said to his daughter. “But as far as the realm, how would I go about extracting the artifacts?”

“Magically, of course,” Kahlan said, leaving Omar more than a little perplexed. “Cara and I are going to ask Lochan, from the establishment down the road, to assist you.”

Omar thought for a moment. Researching the information Sophie needed to complete her calculations made him feel more alive than he had in years. It was as if that single act had marked his return to the world of the living. “Yes,” he said, “I accept your offer.”

Lucia threw her arms around her father’s neck. “I’m proud of you, Dad.”

“It’s settled then, we’ll talk to Lochan on our way out of town, and you can start immediately. Your compensation will come directly from the Midlands.”

“Are you two really going to fly back to Aydindril atop that big chicken?” Cara asked her daughters.

“We have to, Mom. Mino has never been to Aydindril. What if she were to get lost?” Cara had no problem with the beast getting lost, or better yet, roasted, but her daughters didn’t share the sentiment.

“It’s a giant chicken, I’m sure we’d have no trouble finding it.” All it took was a series of pouts from her youngest and she relented. “All right, but you fly directly above us and stop when we stop.”

“You’re really going to let them take that thing back to Aydindril?” Denna said, shaking her head. “I’m so glad I don’t have children.”

***

While the others were about to say their goodbyes, Sophie and Lucia stepped away from them, exchanging gifts and a series of whispered promises. Lucia gave Sophie a necklace she’d had since childhood, and Sophie gifted her with a book of poetry she’d carried with her for years. The two shared a chaste embrace that had been pre-approved by Kahlan. Noticing that both girls were a bit teary-eyed, Cara rolled her eyes, and quickly put her arm around her youngest’s shoulders as Lucia took a few steps to stand next to her father. 

“Grow up fast, beautiful Princess,” she called out to Sophie as she climbed atop the Minokawa.

“Not too fast,” Cara and Kahlan said.

“Have you two considered joining a chorus?” Denna quipped.

“That you are now a family friend won’t spare you from getting a taste of my agiel,” Cara said.

“Oh really, I’d love to see you try,” Denna said, with a raised brow.

“Stop it, both of you,” Kahlan said in a tone that was every bit the Mother Confessor. “I already confessed a giant chicken on this trip, I’d rather not have to confess a couple of unruly Mord’Sith.”

“She wouldn’t,” Denna said, looking over at Cara for confirmation.

“I’ve been immune to her magic for years. You’re on your own.”

“Come on, Denna, you’re riding with us,” Carina said, taking hold of Denna’s arm just as the beast took flight.

Her choice words as Carina lifted her on to the Minokawa’s back were probably heard for leagues. “There’s a special place in the Underworld for you, miracle child. I suggest you run very fast once I get off this thing because I plan on sending you there myself.”

“Denna, don’t be mad,” Sophie said, “It’s fun.” And truth be told it was but Denna wasn’t about to admit it.

On that first night at the brothel, when Denna came face to face with the Amnell women, she never would have imagined the many ways in which they would change her perception of the world. In their company, Denna discovered a new type of strength, a strength that had nothing to with lust for power or with control. The Amnells drew strength from their love for each other and from those they allowed into their hearts. Denna now counted herself among those who had taken up residence in the collective hearts of this tight-knit family. Years earlier, she lived because the Wizard of the First Order believed in her, and for as much as she’d never thought it possible, she’d proved him right.

As they made their way back to Aydindril, they all experienced these moments of introspection. For Carina, it was coming to the realization that the idyllic world in which she'd been raised was far more tenuous than she'd ever imagined. And furthermore, beyond the city walls, there was still poverty and injustice. None of this was new to her but somehow it was different now –– or perhaps she was different now. For the first time in her life, Carina understood that change doesn’t just happen, change requires a catalyst and she intended to be that catalyst. Carina wanted to change the world. She wanted to end suffering and inequity across the land and she was willing to dedicated her life to that end. “There’s a lot of work to be done, Sophie,” she leaned in and said to her sister as they soared through the air on the back of the Minokawa.

During those weeks of travel back home, Cara and Kahlan often retreated into a world of their own. The girls had experienced them like this many times before. They were always struck by a sense of wonderment at witnessing this version of love that belonged exclusively to their mothers. “Did someone cast a spell on those two?” Denna rolled her eyes, and asked multiple times during their journey. The girls shrugged and smiled, surely someday they too would fall under such a spell.

Sophie thought of Lucia often, hoping that perhaps they would see each other again in the near future, always recalling her mothers’ admonishment about growing up too fast. She knew they were right, and truth be told, although she was eager to experience many of the things she’d read about in books, she knew she wasn’t ready yet. Her voracious appetite for knowledge had yet to be sated. Still, every night, sitting by the campfire, the romantic in her mused that perhaps in a few years she and Lucia would fall under a spell as well. 

Just as the outskirts of Aydindril were within sight, Denna said, “My stop is up ahead, little girls. I hope you know how to land this monster.”

“But why?” Carina asked, looking over her shoulder. “You’re a family friend so you can stay with us for as long as you’d like. And besides, technically, you’re still our hostage.”

For as hard as she tried, Denna could not keep the corners of her mouth from curling up into a hint of a smile: Cara was right, the Amnell girls did love her. “I have a business to run,” she said just as Sophie guided the beast to the ground. “Someone will have to pay the ransom the next time one of you gets kidnapped.”

Cara and Kahlan had already brought their horses to a halt and craned their necks to look up at them. “What’s wrong?” Cara hollered, looking up at the massive beast.

“How do I get off this thing?” Denna asked Sophie, who promptly got the Minokawa to squat down low enough for them to slide down its back without risking a broken neck in the process.

“Denna’s leaving, Mommies. What do we do?”

Kahlan and Cara jumped off their horses, and closed the distance to stand beside the former Mord’Sith. “Denna, you’re welcome to stay for as long as you’d like. We’d love to have you,” Kahlan said, resting her hand on Denna’s shoulder.

Denna could not contain her laughter. Not once in her life had she fathomed receiving an invitation to the Confessors’ Palace. “Like I told these two scoundrels who forced me atop that chicken, I have a business to run.”

“So you’re back to peddling flesh,” Cara said with a smirk on her face.

“Mord’Sith are creatures of service, you know that as well as I do,” Denna said.

Cara furrowed her brow. “Will we see you again? My girls will be heartbroken if you don’t visit from time to time.”

“Mommy,” Carina said, “perhaps I should escort Denna back to her place of business. Being that she’s a family friend, it’s the polite thing to do.”

“No,” Cara and Kahlan said in unison –– again.

“Nice try,” Denna leaned in and whispered to Carina.

“Take my horse, I’ll ride with Cara,” Kahlan said, removing her pack and tossing it to her wife, “and please, don’t be a stranger.”

The girls and their mothers hugged her goodbye and watched as she rode off into the horizon. “Let’s go home,” Kahlan said to her wife and her daughters. “And to avoid one of the staff members experiencing a cardiac incident, please fly the chicken around the back. I’ll explain it to them later –– not that I have an explanation.”

“Mom, her name is Mino, and she’s not a chicken,” Sophie said, earning herself eye rolls from both her mothers.

When they were within sight of the city gates, Cara noticed a bit too much red. “Members of the Dragon Corps,” she said to Kahlan, “Richard must be here. Maybe something’s happened.” She urged her horse on with a bit more zeal, feeling no small amount of anxiety at the possibility of her Lord giving her an assignment that would take her away from her family.

Upon entering the city gates, Cara and Kahlan leapt off their mount, causing all of the soldiers to drop to one knee and bow their heads. “Is the Lord Rahl here?” Cara asked the highest ranking officer among them.

“Yes, General,” he said.

“Very well,” Cara said. “Have one of your men see to our horses.”

“Yes, General.”

A soldier escorted them to the Palace entrance and held the door open for them. Staff members were understandably abuzz at the unexpected arrival of their mistresses. Kahlan gave them an opportunity to bow and kiss her hand but quickly waved them off.

It only took Cara a fraction of a second to notice that the door to Kahlan’s drawing room was slightly ajar. “Is everything all right, my Lord?” Cara asked, as usual, reverting to her former self when she experienced the bond at such proximity. Kahlan shook her head as she followed her wife into the room. She’d always felt a fair amount of ambivalence regarding her wife’s connection to her former spouse.

“Yes, I was worried about you and the girls,” he said, looking between them. “I arrived three days ago but the members of your staff weren’t very forthcoming about your whereabouts. I take it that’s thanks to you,” he said looking over at Cara. He got a smirk and a nod by way of reply.

“An… unplanned visit to some old friends came up,” Kahlan said, “I had no idea you were traveling to Aydindril.”

“Clotilde and I were on holiday with the boys in the Westlands. She stayed behind to see about a house we are building. Mason and Caleb have never been happier. Mason is already quite the tracker and Caleb can identify dozens of trees. I decided to make a detour to Aydindril.” Cara and Kahlan shot each other a knowing look: Richard was synonymous with detours. “Are the girls here? I haven’t seen them in months.”

“Eighteen months,” Kahlan said, “You haven’t seen them in eighteen months.” While he and Carina corresponded via journey book often, Sophie stopped writing him when he cancelled three consecutive visits –– the last of which was to coincide with her sixteenth birthday. Unlike her sister, Sophie wasn’t one to let bygones be bygones. Every slight, every disappointment stayed with her for years.

A member of the kitchen staff walked in with a tray of hors d'oeuvres and beverages that should have somewhat defused the rapidly growing tension between the former spouses but it didn’t. Noticing the anger rising in her wife’s chest, Cara took hold of her hand and stroked it with her thumb, instantly calming her down.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes,” she said. Cara, even more so than Kahlan, knew how hurt their youngest had been by her father’s neglect. It had often been the topic of conversation while she trained Sophie in the art of archery. Still, because Richard was Sophie’s father, Cara had always chosen to be a good listener and a source of comfort without undermining her father.

“Dad,” Carina said, hastening her pace to greet her father with a smile and an embrace. Richard reciprocated with equal enthusiasm.

Sophie’s reaction was far more subdued. “Father, to what do we owe the honor?”

He wasn’t surprised by her reaction but it still hurt. “To see my daughters, why else? Your little brothers are napping upstairs. They’ll be thrilled to see you.” Carina glanced at her sister and looked down at the ground the moment the words left her father’s lips.

“Carina, why don’t you go check on them?” Sophie said, “They may get frightened if they wake up in a strange room.” Carina nodded and dashed upstairs.

“You lied,” Sophie said, the moment her sister disappeared into the hallway that led to the guest quarters. “Why are you really here?”

“Sophie,” Cara said, tilting her head.

“Our daughters are Confessors, Richard, or have you forgotten that in your absence?” Kahlan said, tearing away from Cara’s grip and crossing her arms over her chest.

Richard knew he’d dug himself into a hole with the unnecessary lie. “You’re right, that isn’t the only reason I’m here. I have some things to discuss with your mother.”

“Go on,” Kahlan said.

He hadn’t expected that response; he’d hoped he and Kahlan would speak in private first –– he’d hoped this would be easy –– clearly it was not to be. “Fine,” he said, rising to his feet and pacing in front of them, “the time I spent in the Westlands with Clotilde and the boys is the happiest I’ve been since before I was called as the Seeker. I never wanted this life and I still don’t, but most of all I don’t want it for my boys. Kahlan, I’m going to abdicate the throne of D’Hara and name you regent until one of the girls is ready to take over.”

“Oh, so you’ve come to inform us that aside from being a derelict father, you also plan to become a derelict ruler,” Sophie said, with as much disdain as she could muster.

Cara sought to intervene but Kahlan would not allow it. “Sophie, you are allowed to speak your mind but you will do so without disrespecting your father.”

“Tell me, Father, what gives you the right to burden our mothers with your responsibilities? Why should Mom be forced to split her life between Aydindril and D’Hara so that you and your sons can go prancing in the woods?” With every word she uttered, her voice rose. “And what about me and Carina, don’t we matter, or are you finally ready to admit that you resent that we were ever born?”

By then, Carina, who had rushed down the stairs when she’d heard her sister raising her voice, was standing only a few paces away. “Is that true, Dad? Is that why you stopped spending time with us?” Tears were already streaking her cheeks when she took a few steps to stand next to Kahlan and Cara.

Richard covered his face with his hands for a moment. “Of course I don’t regret that you were born. You’re my daughters. I would give my life for you.” He looked over at Carina who looked as if her heart had been torn from her chest, then over at Sophie who looked to be ready to tear Richard’s heart out of his chest. “I’ve made mistakes in my life, as a father and as a man, but I’ve always done my best to make up for those mistakes.”

Sophie released a derisive chuckle, and said, “Like the mistake of sending our mother to the south to punish her for falling in love? She gave birth to Carina in a prison camp. She was only able to hold her infant daughter once before having to hand her to strangers. You did that, Father. And then you turned your back on Carina and me.”

“Don’t you see?” he said. “There was no room for me after…” He trailed off.

“No room after what?” Cara finally asked, standing toe to toe with her Lord. “After you and Kahlan rescued me? Was that the problem, because if it was, you could have left me there to die or killed me yourself. Would you and Kahlan have lived happily ever after had I not come along? Do you really believe that to be the truth?”

“I guess we’ll never know, will we?” he collapsed down on a chaise and held his head in his hands. “All I wanted was a wife to welcome me home after a long day’s work, and a couple of children. We could have gone back to the Westlands and had a good life together. But you and Cara and your obsession with duty –– the world would not have crumbled had I not taken the throne of D’Hara. Someone else would have done it but you two insisted it had to be me. The two of you are cut from the same cloth but I’m not like that, Kahlan. I had a normal life until you showed up. I’m sorry but it’s the truth.”

Kahlan pursed her lips and nodded. “So if my sister and I hadn’t risked our lives to cross the barrier to find the one True Seeker in a thousand years, your life would have been perfect. Never mind that your brother was hell-bent on destroying the world. Perhaps someone else would have stumbled upon the Stone of Tears and kindly delivered it to the Pillars of Creation. Really, Richard, are you still the same sulking little boy I married? Did you ever stop to consider that I fell in love with Cara because she allowed me be myself instead of expecting me to be some image of the perfect girl –– complete with an apron and culinary skills? You constantly spoke of a life that I could not have and never wanted, Richard. You didn’t love me, not really, you wanted to mold me into a girl you could love.”

They all fell silent for several minutes; this was as ugly a moment as they’d had since Kahlan found out Richard had sent Cara to the south without informing her. They’d gotten through that and they would get through this as well. For their daughters’ sake, Kahlan and Cara would make certain of it.

“Richard, you are not going to abdicate the throne of D’Hara, I will not allow it. We had this conversation years ago and, here, in front of our daughters, I will tell you now what I told you then: you will fulfill your duty to your people –– even if it’s under confession.” She then turned to Cara, but continued speaking to Richard. “The only person who can stop me is Cara, but she won’t because this is about what’s best for our daughters. Cara’s bond to you will fade to nothing when faced with our love for each other.” Cara swallowed hard and nodded. Richard was her Lord, but Kahlan and the girls were her life.

“This is all going too far,” Carina said. “Mommy, you are not going to confess Dad, and Dad, you’re not going to abandon the people of D’Hara.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Sophie chimed in, “he thought nothing of abandoning us.”

“Sophie, stop it,” Carina said. “I’m sorry, Dad, but Sophie and I aren’t ready yet. You are going to have to wait a few years to start this new life you want. But when we are ready, Sophie and I will work together to fix all the injustice and cruelty in this world. And we will succeed, but sadly, it won’t be because of you, it will be because of our mothers.”

Richard looked down at his own boots. He knew every word that had come to pass between them was true. “Sophie isn’t angry at you, Dad –– although she pretends she is. Sophie is hurting because she loves you and she misses you, and she has for a long time. I miss you, too, but not like I did when I was little. I don’t really need a dad anymore, but I would like us to be friends.”

Richard wiped tears from his eyes and pulled his eldest into an embrace. “I love you, Carina. Your mother and I were in very bad place but you brought joy back into our lives. I will not lie to you, with the problems in our marriage, I wasn’t ready to be a father but you opened my heart in ways I never imagined. And you, Sophie,” he said, extending his hand out to his youngest daughter, “I’m sorry I hurt you. Your mothers, every time I saw you and Carina with them, I was at a loss. They were so much better at being parents than I was; I felt like I couldn’t compete with what they had to offer but now I realize it wasn’t a competition. You didn’t need me to be perfect, you just needed me to be there for you and I wasn’t. I’ll regret that for the rest of my life but I never regretted your birth nor did I ever stop loving you.”

Sophie sniffled a bit and wiped her nose. “I still need a father, but please, if you don’t want to be my father, then tell me. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. It hurts too much when you do.”

“I won’t, Sophie, I give you my word. And I won’t let you and Cara down either,” he said to Kahlan. “I will continue to rule D’Hara until the day one of ours girls is ready. If that day never comes, so be it.”

Just then, two little boys with floppy hair and big, brown puppy eyes came down the stairs and ran past their father and into the arms of their big sisters. Mason, the older of the two, asked Sophie, “What do you people feed your chickens?”

Kahlan, Cara, and the girls burst into raucous laughter while Richard furrowed his brow trying to discern the punch line. When all the dust settled, Carina pulled Sophie aside and said, “Don’t think I haven’t realized you tricked me into going upstairs so that you could yell at Dad.”

“I knew you would have stopped me,” Sophie said, “and I really needed to tell Father how I felt.”

Carina pursed her lips for a long moment. “Fine, I forgive you but don’t expect me to help you clean the chicken coop.”

“But you promised,” Sophie called out to her sister who was already halfway up the stairs.

“It’s the fuzzy, black kitten all over again,” Cara and Kahlan said in unison. “We have to stop doing that,” they said –– also in unison.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end. This chapter ties up loose ends and gives us a glimpse into the future.

“Girls,” Kahlan called out to her daughters from the balcony of her bedchamber, “your mother and I are going out for the evening. Don’t wait up for us; we may not be home until morning. Please make sure Mino doesn’t swallow your little brothers. I don’t think your father would take it very well.”

“We’ll try, Mom.” Kahlan didn’t find Sophie’s response very reassuring but she wasn’t about the let it interfere with her plans for the evening.

The message Denna had sent Kahlan a few days earlier wasn’t particularly informative. All it said was that her presence, and that of her ‘annoying’ wife, was required at her place of business. Given her status as a family friend, Kahlan thought it ill-mannered to refuse.

“You look beautiful,” Cara said to her wife. “What’s the occasion?” She was wearing the blue dress she had purchased for the ball at the inn and her hair up with a few loose ringlets framing her face –– just as she’d worn it on their wedding day.

“An evening with my wife,” Kahlan said. “Is this dress a bit much?” Cara replied by kissing her way down the column of Kahlan’s neck down to the tops of her breasts. She still knew exactly what to do to bring color to her wife’s cheeks. “I love you,” she said, kissing Cara on the lips.

“Should I…” Cara trailed off gesturing at her leathers.

Kahlan bit her lower lip and shook her head. “Absolutely not. This is exactly how I like you.”

“Well, then, our carriage awaits.” Cara pressed her lips to the back of her wife’s hand, earning herself a radiant smile, and then helped Kahlan into the carriage.

It had been a long time since they’d indulged in the pleasure of each other’s company without having to worry about the girls, or having them beg their mothers to allow them to come along. It was usually Cara who relented for she was rendered helpless by the combination of Sophie’s pouts and the dejected looks Carina masterfully conjured whenever faced with a denial from her mothers. With Richard doing his best to make up for lost time with the girls, Cara and Kahlan planned to make up for lost time with each other.

“I haven’t had you all to myself in far too long,” Kahlan said, leaning in to nibble on her wife’s earlobe.

“For as much as I love our daughters, I’ve missed our time together.” She gazed at Kahlan for a long moment, taking in every detail of her as if she were seeing her for the first time.

“What?” Kahlan asked, looking at her through her lashes. “You can’t look at me like that and not say anything.”

Cara kissed her eyelids and her cheeks and, finally, her lips. “This time I thought it was over. I didn’t think I was going to get out of there alive.”

“My love,” Kahlan said, her hand going to her wife’s cheek.

“No,” Cara said, taking Kahlan’s hand and pressing it to her heart. “You need to know this. All I wanted was to look upon your beautiful face one more time. That would have sufficed; I would have left this world holding an image of you for the rest of eternity.” A tear instantly rolled down Kahlan’s cheek. “When I look at you, I see our daughters, and I see the life we’ve built and everything you’ve given me. You saw something in me, something I thought had died long ago. And somehow you took what little was left of me and you made me whole again. When I was alone in that cave, without you by my side, I was lost, Kahlan. It was like when I was taken by the Mord’Sith. Everything good and pure was gone.”

“For me it’s the same, my love. You have no idea all of the ways in which I fell apart when you were lost to me a second time. I was out of control, Cara. Even our girls weren’t able to talk me down. I’m ashamed to admit this, but Spirits, my hand went to Carina’s throat just as it went to yours in Stowecroft. But for a moment, for a fraction of a second, it was you I saw, not our daughter. You brought me back to myself. Without even being there you saved me.”

Cara chuckled and shook her head. “I saved you? You’re the one who found me –– again –– and you endured traveling through the passage between realms, and you confessed the giant monster. Let’s face it, Kahlan, I’m lost without you.”

“No, my love, we’re lost without each other.” She rested her head on Cara’s shoulder and for the rest of the way, they held each other in silence.

When the carriage came to a full stop, Kahlan smiled and said, “We’re here.”

“And where exactly is ‘here’?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Aren’t you a woman of mystery?” Cara said, leaning in to give her one last kiss as the driver opened the door and extended his hand to Kahlan. He did the same for Cara but she rolled her eyes and hopped out on her own.

When she realized where they were, Cara blinked and tipped her head. “Well, this is a whole new side to your personality.”

Kahlan rolled her eyes. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I’ll have you know that Denna requested our presence here for reasons of her own.”

Denna, who had been expecting them, said, “Ladies. Follow me, please.” Cara and Kahlan glanced at each other, and with a shrug, followed Denna around the back of the brothel and into a smaller structure with a sign hanging over the door that read, “Welcome to the Miracle Tavern.”

Cara and Kahlan laughed so hard they nearly keeled over. “Oh, Carina is going to kill you,” Cara said.

“She will do no such thing. I’m a family friend, remember? And besides, her constant nagging about visiting my establishment inspired this family-friendly venture. It is still a work in progress but I want the two of you to be my first guests.” Cara and Kahlan smiled at each other. Their daughters had made their way into Denna’s heart. “On a separate note, I heard Richard visited Aydindril. Not trouble, I hope.”

Kahlan furrowed her brow. “How did you…” she trailed off.

Cara leaned in and kissed Kahlan’s temple. “Brothel owners are the first to learn of the latest gossip.” Kahlan tipped her head; her wife had a good point.

“Richard stopped by on his way back from a holiday in the Westlands to spend time with the girls and discuss some other matters.” By the way Kahlan’s expression had changed at the mention of her former spouse’s name, Denna discerned that his visit had not been a particularly welcome one.

“Rahl men are all a bore, really. You did well to rid yourself of Richard,” she said. That her former sister did not jump to her Lord’s defense confirmed Denna’s suspicions. “As insufferable as Cara is, she’s certainly an improvement upon Richard.”

“You do know I can hear you?” Cara said with a scowl.

Denna ignored Cara’s remark and ushered them into her new establishment, which had been reserved for the evening especially for them. Much like the brothel, the tavern had an understated elegance about it. Madame Denna was nothing if not tasteful, and her attention to detail spoke of her years as a Mord’Sith; she left nothing to chance. There was a table in the middle of the room with flowers and a bottle of wine, along with a server, ready to bring in their meal.

Behind the dining area were a dance floor and a group of string musicians who were to serve as the entertainment for the evening. While Cara would have been just as happy staying home with Kahlan all night, she knew how much her wife loved these romantic outings, as she referred to them. Truth be told, the joy Cara derived from indulging her wife stayed with her for days.

“Your meal will be served shortly,” said the server, earning himself an appreciative nod from the former Mord’Sith.

“Denna breaks her staff well,” Cara said.

Kahlan rolled her eyes. “She trains her staff well, she doesn’t break them.” After considering the matter for a moment, she added, “I hope.”

“Well, either way, I think you and I have time for a dance before dinner,” Cara said, causing Kahlan to absolutely beam with joy. With a nod at the musicians, she took Kahlan in her arms and spun her around the dance floor.

“Spirits, I’ll never understand why dancing was part of the Mord’Sith training protocol but I am so very grateful it was.” With that, Cara expertly dipped her, supporting her weight with one arm before pulling her up and into a passionate kiss.

The server not so subtly cleared his throat interrupting the moment for the sake of the meal. “Ladies, may I bring you anything else?” he asked. Cara and Kahlan were too busy gazing into each other’s eyes to register the question.

“You do know you can’t kiss me that way without finishing what you started?”

“I’m a very good finisher,” Cara said, looking down at her wife’s cleavage. As usual, Kahlan blushed furiously at getting that look.

“That you are, my love,” Kahlan said as she leaned in to kiss the spot behind Cara’s ear. “That you are.”

“Well, it appears the meal was to your liking,” Denna said, looking down at the empty plates.

Noticing the smug look on the former Mord’Sith’s face, Kahlan chuckled a bit. “It’s the best meal we’ve had in years,” she said.

“Good,” Denna replied, “Having the Mother Confessor of the Midlands and her family as my regular clients will be very good for business. I expect to see the two of you, along with your spawn, at least once a month.”

“Is that your ill-mannered way of telling us you miss our girls?” Cara said, raising her brows and tipping her head.

Denna’s lips parted with the intention of delivering a snide remark, but her expression softened for a long moment, and in her gravest tone, she said, “If I were still a Mord’Sith, it would be an honor to serve either of those Rahls.”

Cara gave her a firm nod and Kahlan pulled her in to an embrace. “Thank you,” Kahlan said. “For everything, and most of all for watching over our girls. And, yes, you will have to reserve a permanent table for us.”

With that, Cara and Kahlan took leave of this unlikely ally, knowing full well that that last statement had elevated her from family friend to bona fide family member. Perhaps some good had come out of this journey.

***

“Where are we going now?” Cara asked when she noticed they were headed away from the palace instead of toward it.

“Somewhere wonderful,” Kahlan said, nuzzling Cara’s hair.

“More wonderful than our bed –– without any clothes on?”

“Just as wonderful but with much more privacy,” Kahlan said. “I like that our daughters have become so independent.” Cara pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. “You don’t agree?”

Cara thought for a moment. “I’m torn. I love nothing more than being alone with you –– preferably naked and making you scream with pleasure but…caring for little Confessors was…” She trailed off, unable to form words to properly describe the experience.

Kahlan smiled, recalling Cara’s doubts as to her abilities as a mother. “We’ve done well, haven’t we? Our girls are kind and brave and smart, and so much of it is because of you.” She leaned in and gave Cara a languid kiss. “You, my love, are a wonderful mother.”

“Even after this mess I made?”

“You tried to protect us. It was dumb but your heart was in the right place. I know it and our daughters know it. And in many ways, it’s been a good thing.” Cara shot her a skeptical look. “It has, Cara. Our girls have matured so much because of it, and they’ve gotten a much broader perspective on life. It’s also reminded me of how much I need you. Not being able to turn to you, to talk to you, to hold you, it was more difficult than you know.”

Noticing tears welling up in her wife’s eyes, Cara pulled her into her arms. “I’m here now, and I’m never leaving your side again.” She kissed Kahlan’s temple and looked into her eyes for a moment. “Nothing and no one will ever take me away from you.”

Just as the words left her lips, the carriage came to a halt. “We’re here,” Kahlan said, the grin on her face revealing her excitement. When Cara stepped out of the carriage and realized where they were –– it was her turn to grin. “Please come back for us in the morning,” Kahlan told the driver, who nodded and bowed his head in response.

“It’s been a long time,” Cara said as she opened the door to the cottage that for years had been their secret place. “How did that happen, how did we stop spending our afternoons here?” She put her arms around Kahlan and held her like that for several minutes.

“We were busy being mothers and warriors and rulers,” Kahlan said. “Being lovers took a backseat to our responsibilities. Those days are over, Cara. When you were lost to me, I promised myself that when I got you back, our marriage would come before everything else.”

Kahlan spoke with such passion about their marriage that Cara could not contain herself. She scooped Kahlan up in her arms just as she had the very first time she’d brought her here and marched directly to the bed. Kahlan threw her head back and laughed, just as she had that time as well. “Spirits, how is it possible to love someone this much?” Kahlan asked.

Cara delivered her to the bed and promptly embarked upon the task of slowly undressing her. Slowly was a concept that took Cara years to master. It was her desire to make everything about her and Kahlan last that inspired her to develop that skill; Kahlan vigorously approved.

“You do know I’m the luckiest woman in the world,” Kahlan said, when Cara’s mouth went to one of the hard peaks of her wife’s breasts.

“No, that would be me, but thank you.” She then turned her attention to its twin.

“Clothes off, now,” Kahlan breathed out arching into her wife’s mouth. Cara smirked and lingered above her a few seconds. Seeing that hungry look in her wife’s eye only served to stoke her own desire. “Cara, now,” Kahlan said, “I need to feel your skin.”

Cara did away with her leathers in record time, earning herself a passionate kiss that had them moaning into each other’s mouth. It didn’t take long for Cara to settle between her wife’s legs, causing just enough friction to have Kahlan writhing with need. This teasing, however, did not sit well with the Mother Confessor of the Midlands.

She used her size advantage to reverse their positions and quickly glided down Cara’s body and parted Cara’s legs. “This is what I want,” Kahlan said, burying her face between her wife’s thighs.

The move caught Cara off guard but those things Kahlan was doing with her tongue, well, they erased all thoughts of revenge from her mind as she urged Kahlan on with a hand on the back of her head. “More, I want more,” Cara moaned. Kahlan responded by biting Cara’s clit just so and sliding two fingers inside her.

Cara rode her wife’s hand to three consecutive orgasms that came in waves of pleasure that left her panting for air as she called out her wife’s name. When she finally collapsed onto the bed, Kahlan licked her clean and kissed her way up Cara’s body so that Cara could taste herself on Kahlan’s lips.

“That,” Cara said when she could form words, “was cheating, and it was so good.” Kahlan gave her a self-satisfied smile and kissed the apex of each of her breasts.

Not one to be outdone, Cara took hold of her wife’s hips and dragged her up to straddle her face. “Oh Spirits,” Kahlan said when she felt Cara’s tongue inside her. It wasn’t long before she took to grinding herself on Cara’s face. “I hope you’re still immune to confession,” Kahlan said between pants, “because I’m about to come so hard the building may collapse.” Cara apparently took it as a personal challenge for her zeal intensified to such an extent that Kahlan threw back her head and exploded into orgasm in Cara’s mouth. Kahlan’s magic, Cara was certain, probably confessed a dozen of the neighbors. She held Kahlan through her orgasm and when her body relaxed, she lay on the bed alongside her. They fell asleep like that, naked and sweaty and very well-sexed.

As usual, Cara woke up first, happy to indulge in the pleasure of watching her wife sleep. How she loved moments like these, moments in which the reality of her good fortune sank in. That she, a Mord’Sith, could have this life was in itself a miracle –– not quite as miraculous as the conception of her eldest child, but still a miracle. She had a wife, and she had children, and she had a home filled with love. Looking over at Kahlan, who was still sound asleep, she decided that her wife was the real miracle. None of this would have come about without her. Kahlan looked upon a Mord’Sith –– her kind’s natural predator –– and saw more. Kahlan saw things in Cara that, in her own mind, had long since been lost and she loved her anyway.

No longer able to control the urge, Cara edged in closer and kissed the tiny scar on Kahlan’s lip. “I love you,” Kahlan mumbled in that space between sleep and wakefulness. “I love you more than my life.”

***

“Mommies,” Carina called out as she and Sophie rushed down the stairs when they saw their mothers’ carriage approaching. They greeted them at the door with hugs and kisses as if they’d been gone for years. Cara and Kahlan glanced at each other and chuckled. Their daughters, in so many ways, were still sweet little girls.

“So where did you go?” Sophie asked.

“Well,” Kahlan said, “we visited Denna’s new business establishment. She’s eager to have you two visit as well.”

“You spent the entire night at Denna’s?” Carina asked, furrowing her brow. A second later, noticing the glow on both her mothers’ faces, her eyes widened and her cheeks turned crimson. “Oh, you spent the entire night f ––” Kahlan’s hand promptly covered her daughter’s mouth.

“We spent a lovely evening together. That is all you two need to know. Well, that and that we will be doing so very often.” With that, she and Cara walked directly to their chambers.

“Spirits, I wished you hadn’t asked,” Sophie said.

“I wish I hadn’t asked either,” Carina said. “Let’s go see Grandfather. Maybe he can cast a spell to erase the mental image.”

Sophie nodded. “It’s worth a try.”

“As old as they are, I can’t believe they still...you know,” Carina said.

“Me neither, maybe we should have a talk with them,” Sophie replied.

“Oh no,” Carina said, “I’m not telling Mommy she’s old again. It got us into a heap of trouble last time.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “Fine, but you’re oldest. You should really be the one to tell them. At their age, that type of exertion can’t be healthy.”

“And what do you know about that type of exertion?” Carina said with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, I am the more experienced between us,” Sophie said, “I have kissed a girl before you know.”

Carina narrowed her eyes and gave her little sister a hard shove. “Oh, that is going to cost you,” Sophie said just as Carina ran up the stairs.

“Mommies, Sophie is trying to kill me.”

Cara and Kahlan rolled their eyes in unison. “We could go back to the cottage,” Kahlan said.

“After dinner,” Cara said, “We’ll cover the pillows with sheets. They’ll think we’re asleep.”

“Good plan,” Kahlan said, pulling her wife into a kiss.

***

“I still remember that day,” Sophie said. “Spirits, we were little girls.”

Carina nodded. “That was their gift to us. Our mothers made certain we enjoyed our youth for as long as possible.”

“I suppose they knew what was to come,” Sophie said with a sad smile.

Carina pulled her sister into an embrace. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy, Sophie. But we’ve done well. Our people are prosperous and happy. “

The situation Carina and Sophie found upon making their first official visit to D’Hara hadn’t been at all what they’d expected. Evidence of Richard’s disdain for his position could be seen well beyond the walls of the People’s Palace. Richard treated the throne just as he did the quest for the Stone of Tears. He mingled with peasants, kissed babies, and shook hands with visiting dignitaries. Thus, corruption and intrigue ruled the day. Richard, the Seeker of Truth, saw everything but chose to turn a blind eye to it.

Sophie’s keen intellect, and her extensive knowledge of systems of government, uncovered everything hidden by the veil of normalcy that the gold Aydindril periodically loaned D’Hara provided. Richard had surrounded himself with leeches, not capable senators and cabinet members. Kahlan, of course, was well aware of the situation in D’Hara but she knew that undermining the sitting Rahl would open the floodgates for opportunists and would-be revolutionaries. She had no choice but to do what she could behind the scenes to keep the people of D’Hara well.

The army, having for the most part been trained by Cara, was in far better shape than the other branches of government. Still, having the Princesses there was certainly a morale booster. Donovan, of course, served as their personal guard during this visit –– just as he did on all the visits that followed. By the time they headed back to Aydindril, Carina knew the names of just about every soldier –– and their offspring. She exuded power and confidence mingled with her unique brand of empathy and sensitivity, but she was also persuasive and determined in ways that her father never had been. It’s safe to say that after that first month-long visit, the people of D’Hara were hopeful and eagerly awaiting a changing of the guard. That the Princesses traveled between Aydindril and D’Hara atop a giant chicken that had allegedly swallowed one of their mothers, only added to their appeal.

It was a long and arduous road but Sophie and Carina never lost faith. They held to their vision of a better world, never allowing anything or anyone to deter them. Cara and Kahlan were a constant source of support and wisdom, but they respected their daughters’ wish to do this on their own. Sophie and Carina felt that their mothers had given enough of themselves to others; they didn’t want their mothers to be burdened with responsibilities that were not theirs to carry. Thus, it was decided that Kahlan would stay on as Mother Confessor and Cara as General, but only of Aydindril’s army.

“Mommy,” called out an eager six-year-old with thick dark curls and bright green eyes, wearing her favorite red dress. “You’re home.” She tore away from her grandmother’s grip and into Carina’s arms. “I missed you,” she declared.

Cara and Kahlan smiled and shook their heads. Their granddaughter was a handful –– much more so than their own daughters had been. Truth be told, Cara and Kahlan spoiled little Kahlan in every conceivable way, and now that she had a little sister on the way, it was only going to get worse.

While Carina had long ago declared she was in no hurry to settle down, it was within days of that first official visit to D’Hara that she met the woman who would become her wife. Donovan, of all people, introduced them. In fact, he was the best man at their wedding and, years later, little Kahlan’s godfather. Gabriela was the daughter of a well-respected Galean businessman who was visiting friends in D’Hara. When Carina caught a glimpse of that smile and those beautiful green eyes, she promptly declared that she’d met her future wife. When she invited Gabriela to Aydindril for the first time, Kahlan and Cara desperately tried to find something wrong with her –– anything that would make her unworthy of their little girl for they were not ready to let Carina go. Alas, the girl was an absolute joy to be around and obviously crazy about Carina.

Sophie, on the other hand, shied away from commitment. She had many suitors, both male and female, and she certainly enjoyed the attention but choosing a mate, she often pointed out, was not something to be taken lightly. Already in her 33rd year, her mothers worried that she enjoyed playing the field a bit too much to ever settle down.

Donovan and Carina, however, surreptitiously arranged for Sophie to reconnect with the one person who they knew had touched her heart long ago. It took no small amount of maneuvering, but with a bit of help from Carina’s wife, and from Denna of all people, they managed to arrange a casual encounter that was not at all casual. The light in Sophie’s eyes when she looked upon Lucia after all those years served to confirm that they had been right: it was always Lucia who held the key to Sophie’s heart. While they had only seen each other twice once Sophie returned to Aydindril after Cara’s rescue, it was as if they had never parted.

***

That evening, as they all sat down for dinner, including Donovan and Denna, Cara leaned in and whispered into Kahlan’s ear, “We’ve done well, haven’t we?”

“We have, my love, we have.” She kissed Cara gently on the lips and whispered into her ear, “As soon as all of these children go upstairs, we head for the cottage. If I don’t get you out of those leathers soon, I may go mad.”

Cara smirked. “I had the stable hand ready our horses hours ago.”

“Smart move,” Kahlan said, and kissed her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So lately it feels as if our little fandom is fading away. Many writer and readers seem to have jumped ship, which is sad, but also an opportunity to be grateful for those of you who still take the time read and comment. Thank you!


End file.
